Sendicard
patreon
Chapter 105 - Arc 7 - We're Ready Kakashi, The Chunin Exams Start Now! - Sasuke Cares?
🕑 Added 2024-11-08 22:34:36 +0000 UTCWe have a lot of small events to go over from the new perspective of Sakura and this team before we get to the actual forest, which is when all the massive changes will start.
Still, I think this is a very different experience than watching canon directly, and I hope you enjoy.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Arriving at the location they were given by Kakashi, they’re quick to enter and make their way up. Stepping up to the second floor, they arrive just in time to see someone standing over and lecturing two fallen Genin on the floor. “A Chunin is at the level of a unit leader. Mission failures, death of subordinates, it’s all part of the responsibilities of a leader. A brat such as this a Chunin?” A man in front of a door sniffs at them in disgust, “what’s so bad about weeding out those who won’t pass?” This wouldn’t be a big deal to them normally. Sakura would likely just walk past this in normal circumstances to avoid needless conflict, and her team would happily follow. Maybe Naruto would growl at them, wave his arms, make some kind of small show, but ultimately they would continue on their journey and leave the fighting Genin to their fates. This is a test, no one’s going to die, and they have exams to get to.
Thing is, who he’s standing over and lecturing is an important variable. She can see the marks on them, and her blood boils with rage. Tenten and Lee are on the ground together, looking worse for wear. It strikes her as odd that someone could hurt Lee like that, but that reasoning leaves as fast as it arrives when she sees dirt on Tenten’s cheek.
In another world she might find it amusing. She’d wonder why this is happening; three oh one is on the second floor and there’s no reason to fight here. She’d probably have Naruto send a clone upstairs to make sure there aren’t two three oh ones or something. People make mistakes, she gets it, it’d be good to figure out which they need to go to in that event.
In this world, she’s much too preoccupied with openly growling at this guy that dared to hit Tenten. She imagines she sounds a bit like an Inuzuka right now, and the crowd that’s accumulated around the scene moving a little away from her is probably fair. “Hey asshat!” She’s already drawing her sword as she steps up to her friend, “I don’t care what your intentions are, cut it out now.”
“Sakura, um, maybe we shouldn’t-” Naruto places a hand on her shoulder-
“Shush, Naruto, you wanna kick his ass too.” Sakura’s voice is dripping with a feral urge to maim and rip this man apart, she doesn’t even look back at Naruto.
“I do, but if we get disqualified it’ll screw Sasuke over,” Naruto says, “remember you gave that whole rant about being considerate of others?”
She takes one look back at Sasuke, who shrugs and nods at her with the most ‘take it or leave it’ expression she has ever seen. It truly does not look like he cares either way. “Sasuke’s on board.” Sakura announces, pointing her black blade in front, the red sigils inscribed on it glowing with a little life as she readies herself to feed it. “Hit her again, I dare you, my life’s been rather peaceful recently and my blade is suffering from depression. I wanna cheer it up.”
“Sakura, I don’t think I need to be protected.” Tenten says, grabbing her leg and forcing herself to her feet using her - until recently - pink friend as a support for the half a second it takes her to get upright and stretch. “Thank you though. Please stop drawing attention to me.”
“I was looking so cool though.” Sakura grumbles to herself, a lot of the heat in her gaze dissipating as fast as it came. “Hunger’s gonna be sad.”
“You totally looked cool, good girl,” her weapon mistress friend pats her head, “now put away the sword, you’re causing problems.”
“Aww…” The gentle sheathing of her ‘son’ is met only with the drama of Sasuke sighing and walking around them. Their eyes draw to the boy, who quickly begins walking up some stairs hidden to the side. “Oh.” She sprints after him, Naruto quickly on her tail.
“What the hell was that?” The two guys in front of the door ask the air.
“That was Sakura Haruno. She’s a little overprotective but she’s good natured.” Tenten answers him, as if they weren’t just fighting. “She was totally kidding by the way, no reason to hold a grudge.”
“Uh… sure.”
Tenten, Lee, and Neji are quickly flowing up the stairs a moment later, distancing themselves from the crowd staring after them as quickly as possible. “I thought the goal was to not make a scene?” Neji asks Tenten as they trail up the steps.
“It was either going to be me when she pulled out the sword, Lee when she swung, or them when they stopped her. You should know that the lay low plan was screwed the moment she arrived, you live with her.” Tenten argues right back.
“Fair enough…” Strangely enough, Lee is very silent and seems to be thinking hard about something.
-------------------------------------------------------------
“You, Sasuke Uchiha!” There’s a shout behind them, and Sakura turns just in time to catch Rock Lee of all people standing above them. The floor before them is flat, and this looks like a pretty good sparring room, which tells her that the timing of this is likely less coincidental and more incredibly planned.
“No.” Sakura argues with him before Sasuke can even fully turn and look towards her crazy friend. “We have to do the Chunin exams, we can’t be getting into dumb fights. Gai and Kakashi are friends, you can arrange a spar at any time.”
“...”
“...”
Both Sasuke and Lee fixate their gazes on her. “What?” She asks just in time to preempt the furious flush that’s spreading over her cheeks before she even gets what’s going on.
“You were just threatening to chop some guy up over hitting Tenten.” Sasuke points out. “We didn’t even see him hit her, he might not have, I don’t think you get to talk here.”
“I just want to rough him up a little,” Lee calls out to her, “no one will get disqualified or be unable to arrive. We still have half an hour.”
“You’re sure?” Sakura asks Sasuke, her gaze tilting to the side, “you know you’re going to lose right? I beat you in hand-to-hand spars all the time and Lee is so much stronger than me. I actually put your odds at zero.”
“I’m not going all out with you, and your abilities counter half-hearted attacks too well.” Sasuke defends himself, “the last time I went all out, Kakashi freaked out on us, remember?”
“Not sure I’d say freaked…” But he does have a point, they were criticized and told their teamwork sucked for weeks. If Sasuke’s been holding back, she’d love to see what he can actually do. “You promise not to break him, Lee? I need him.”
“I promise, we will both be able to get to room three oh one, Sakura!” Lee throws a green spandex and bandaged arm into the air, and she gulps in apprehension. His muscles look like they have muscles, and the skintight material does not try to hide that.
“Your lack of confidence in me is rather hurtful.” Sasuke drawls, coming directly out of a sigh. That’s confusing, isn’t it? She’s always figured Sasuke was so self focused she couldn’t hurt his feelings, but if he’s somehow started caring about her opinion and she didn’t notice, and she’s downing on him like this, well, now she feels kinda guilty. Swirling emotion spread out from her core and quickly overwhelm her.
She doesn’t change her opinion, but she needs to recalibrate herself for a Sasuke that cares about what she thinks. “Go Sasuke!” She shouts instead, “kick his ass!”
It looks like Lee got shot through the heart, but he’ll live. Lee doesn’t need her confidence, he can stand on his own. Sasuke has no one but them, and the entire world will know Lee’s strength soon when he destroys the Chunin exam. She’s absolutely sure he will, she’s got supernatural abilities improving her stamina and capabilities and she can’t hold up to him at all. She’s pretty sure a full out fight between them would actually be her agreeing to a full out fight and then immediately waking up in the hospital with no memory of the in-between.
“Ahem.” Lee coughs into his fist, before stepping forward on the raised platform above the stairs down into the room. If she was explicitly asked she would have to admit he looks pretty cool up there, but no one is asking and she’s not admitting anything for free. “Sasuke Uchiha, you’re a genius the likes of which is only seen a few times a generation! You were rookie number one of your class, and I would like to test myself against you. I want to test out how effective my techniques will be against the descendant of the clan reputed for genius ninjas! And once I’ve defeated you, maybe Sakura will give up on you and go out with me!”
“I um, I’m dating Ino not Sasuke.” Sakura reminds with a shaky raise of her hand.
“You are?” Naruto asks and she shoots him a glare that tries to transmit ‘no’ as hard as she can. He doesn’t seem convinced. If she’s going to continue using Ino as an excuse to get away from hurting Lee, maybe she should just make things official so everything’s not so awkward? No, that’d hurt their relationship with expectations she’s not ready for or up to meeting. Still, it’s a thought. Ino would probably be very mad at her for thinking of dating her ‘because it’s easier’ than because she wants to though, so it’s a thought she’ll keep to herself.
“How could I forget, he’s just so attractive I thought it must be him!” The boy slaps his fist into his open palm.
“Should I be offended or complimented?” Sasuke asks, looking back to Sakura in clear hopes she can translate Lee for him.
“How should I know?” Sakura asks him.
The stoic boy nods, and readies himself into an expertly crafted combat stance that Sakura is forced to admire. She should have him teach her better technique, she does sort of brute force her way through their spars. Gai’s training is very helpful but he hasn’t taught her anything that refined looking and the distance is staggering. “Introduce yourself and let’s fight, we don’t have long.” Sasuke glares at his new opponent with renewed heat.
“Right, I am Rock Lee!” The fastest boy alive jumps over the railing and lands in front of them gracefully enough his landing barely makes a sound despite being from a high height. “I declare. You are absolutely no match for me, because among the leaf Genin, I am the strongest fighter in a fight that’s not to the death!”
“Why um, the caveat?” Sakura asks, and she isn’t happy when all present company looks towards her like she’s dumb. She gets what they’re saying but there’s no way in hell she’s the strongest just because the fight is lethal, there are so many people not considered they don’t even know about, and Neji can kill someone with a poke. A poke! That’s not even getting into the Aburame and their nonsense.
“I’ll do it, ready yourself, we don’t have the time to play so I’ll start in top gear!” And before Sakura can blink, Sasuke is off sprinting across the floor at top speed. He’s so much faster than when they spar, is he really holding back with her? Did she have the wrong idea entirely about how they match up as a group? That’s so cool!
“Go Sasuke!” She waves a hand in the air at him, not that he can see it. “Naruto, make cheerleaders now.”
“But-”
“Do it!”
The room behind the fight is filled with pom-pom wielding versions of her new little sister clones. The form has to feel pretty natural for him now so she doesn’t question it for more than the instant it takes to be surprised he didn’t summon buxom babe cheerleaders. Lee looks rather disheartened by the sheer spirit and vitality of Sasuke’s new on the spot fanclub, but that feeling is quickly pushed away when Sasuke throws a punch towards his face and Lee has to dodge to the side at lightning speed. A kick flies over Sasuke’s head as he ducks, and he finds his arms automatically raising to block another quick kick aimed for his face.
Sasuke’s sent skidding back on contact, sliding across the floor with enough force to kick up dust. He falls to the floor at the end of the movement, unable to keep his stance, only to rise back to his feet while panting less than a second later. “Your eyes.” Lee says with a little sadness to his tone, “another doujutsu getting in the way.”
“You should be proud I felt the need to call upon my birthright.” Sasuke says, and Sakura’s gaze moves to him to see that he has in fact activated the Sharingan. The idiot, he should have activated it before the fight even started, she told him that Lee was bullshit! She doesn’t chide him though, he needs her cheers more. He’s going to lose this, and when he does, at least he’ll know that they’re on his side. “You can do it Sasuke!” She cups her hands together and shouts.
He’s off towards Lee again in an instant, his movements crisper and better timed. He’s adapting well to the speed perception increase of his eyes, Kakashi must have helped him with it the last two months. He’s yet to use his Sharingan during one of their spars, and somehow that fact slipped her mind. Probably because red eyes aren’t remarkable to her so not seeing them doesn’t mean much either. She’s had glowing reds for a long time now, it’s just an eye color.
“Huh?” Sakura finds out that the Sharingan is worthless here a moment later when Lee starts battering Sasuke around like a ragdoll. It’d probably be different if Sasuke would train it against her, but she imagines Kakashi’s enforced some kind of dumb rule out of fairness or something. She’ll be scolding him about that later and making him use it against her, but for now, she watches in horror.
Their movements are like lightning. They’re so fast it’s hard for her to track them and the fight even with all her mental stat, she’ll need to figure out a skill for high speed movement tracking before she has to fight someone like Lee.
With one smack and kick after another, Lee systematically tears Sasuke apart right in front of his entire cheer squad, and she can’t help but wonder why they didn’t send Lee into the dungeon instead of Tenten. She gets that Tenten was awesome but like, what the hell!? This is nonsense!
“That’s right, my Technique is mere taijutsu, Sasuke!” A declaration from Lee is a little out of place for her, but maybe Sasuke said something she missed? She tilts her head in curiosity. “It’s said that the Sharingan has the ability to spot all genjutsu, taijutsu, and ninjutsu. Make no mistake, the Sharingan reads all ninjutsu and genjutsu which require the principle of building up chakra and weaving signs and can most surely handle such jutsu. However, taijutsu is a little bit different.”
“What?” Sasuke asks, stammering a little while shuffling in place. He’s trying to use the moment to get his bearings and get an understanding of what’s even happening, and Sakura’s tempted to get involved and stop this. Sasuke is needed on his feet in twenty minutes, she doesn’t want to have to drag him in there!
“Even if you can spot my movements with the Sharingan, your body is not equipped with the speed to respond to my taijutsu. You’re much faster than I expected and I have had to try very hard for our short bout, but you simply cannot handle me. There’s nothing you can do if your body cannot keep up with your eyes, face it, you lose.” Lee crushes him with words alone, standing there like a monster in the open. She’s not sure they could take him on like this if all three of them teamed up, she’d need to get lethal to - oh that might be what they meant earlier.
Strangely enough, Sasuke looks back at her, and she manages to catch it just in time to smile brightly and give him two thumbs up. “You got this Sasuke!”
“No I don’t,” he grunts, “but thank you, Sakura.” His gaze flits right back to Lee as he stands tall, “I’m sorry, but my team needs me for this next part. We’ve agreed to tackle our hurdles together. Talk to your teacher about setting up another spar, I will prepare for next time with my whole team.”
“What?” She whispers to herself. She expected anything but that, and when Sasuke turns away from Lee and begins to walk towards them, she can’t help the dismay showing on her face.
“Come, Sakura, we have somewhere to be. Naruto get rid of these clones, that was so creepy.” Sasuke shakes his head as he passes them. She falls in line without a question on autopilot while her brain tries to sort through her confusion. What just happened? Why did his personality change so drastically? She’s completely sure that when they first graduated he would have tried to fight Lee until she had to drag his unconscious body into room three oh one and hoped it counted.
“Stupid Sasuke, thinks he looks so cool.” Naruto grumbles under his breath. “That Lee guy is something else.”
Yeah he is, but so is Sasuke, what just happened?Whatever it was, she’s proud to call him her teammate.
Comments
Dopplerdee
...he isn't allowed to use his eyes against her because she moves in inhuman ways and has no respect for her body I'm guessing? Like Taskmaster and Moonnight/Deadpool. Also love the Little sister Narutos. Bit concerned for Naruto's mental state but.... cute.
Christopher Cummins
Twice.
Damon Fitzgerald
I am quite curious what is going through Sasuke's head right now. He definitely seems to be be doing better than canon though. I am also looking forward to next chapter where Ino finds out that Sakura said they were dating to avoid Lee. She is going to take advantage of that for sure.
