The Shadow Wars
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Chapter 25
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At last, it was time for the finals of the Jounin Exam. The match-up was one that shocked everyone, especially those from Konohagakure: Uzumaki Naruto versus Haruno Sakura. But what they didn't know was that the match would end in an even bigger shocker for everyone. It would signal the forfeiting of one dream for another.
"Today's match: Uzumaki Naruto versus Haruno Sakura." The announcer said, as the two fighters walked nervously towards each other.
"Sakura-chan, please don't hold back because it's me..." Naruto whispered, hollowly, emotion-less.
"Naruto-kun..." Sakura whispered.
In both of their heads, love and desire clashed with each other constantly, endlessly. They didn't know what to do. Vaguely, the words "ready, begin" echoed in their heads. Begin what?
"I..." Naruto said, beginning the phrase that might just end his dream for good.
"No, Naruto. Please don't. I... give..." Sakura began, but she never got a chance to finish before Naruto calmly walked up to her.
"No, Sakura. I'll give up. You deserve the glory more than I do. I give up." Naruto said, tears streaming down his face despite himself.
"Winner: Haruno Sakura." The announcer said.
"Naruto-kun..." Sakura uttered, hugging the blonde-haired shinobi. She knew what he had done, and wanted to comfort him. But, there was no time. For, in front of the pair, was Sasuke.
"So, Naruto... You finally decided to purposely lose a fight. Or did you just... Sense me?" smirked Sasuke, who seemed different than usual. The normally calm Uchiha now seemed excited, unstable. His eyes, usually either red with three pupils or just white with one pupil, was now blood-red, with five pupils, arranged in a star pattern.
"You're wrong. I gave up for Sakura-chan." Naruto said.
Slowly, Sasuke began finalizing his transformation. His hands moved through all the possible hand seals, and then reversed them all. Gradually, Sharingan eyes began opening up throughout his body. Around him, waves of black chakra flowed out from the eyes. Behind him opened a large Sharingan eye.
"Like it, Naruto? I wouldn't stare into it if I were you." Sasuke said, smirking. Suddenly, he vanished. Then, he kicked Naruto in the back, sending the blonde-haired shinobi into the wall.
Groaning, Naruto got up, staggering on his feet. Then, he took out one of his kunai. But that's when he found out something rather unsettling. He had been so preoccupied with his worries about fighting Sakura that he had forgotten both his shuriken and kunai! "Kuso..."
Sasuke appeared in front of Naruto and threw a fierce uppercut, which sent the blonde out of the arena.
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"This is a rather interesting development..." Itachi said.
"What is, Itachi-sama?" asked Kisame, confused. It wasn't often that Itachi talked off his own will, but, then again, they were going on a mission soon.
"It seems that Sasuke has found the Scroll that was lost centuries ago. How convenient. I have been looking for it." Itachi said.
"But isn't that bad? That does mean that Konoha now has a weapon that we would rather them not have."
"No. While Sasuke has the Scroll's powers, he never activated the Mangekyou, and therefore cannot use Tsukiyomi or Amaretsu."
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At the outskirts of Konoha came the sound of a bell. Immediately, a huge barrage of shuriken flew at the shinobi stationed at the gates. All of them fell, and the forest suddenly came alive as thousands of red-and-black-clad figures rushed out of it.
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"Sasuke, why are you doing this?" screamed Sakura, frightened. Sasuke seemed to be out of his mind.
"I need to try out this new power." Sasuke said, smirking again.
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A/N: I know that this chapter was short, but I didn't want to go into detail about the attack in this one.