Disclaimer:

I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.

Here we go again:

It was a sunny morning in Konoha and the Hidden Leaf village was once again peaceful. People went on with their daily lives, oblivious to the true conflict that the ninjas faced. However, some would say that to be able to witness such serenity and peace was a worthy cause to fight anyway. On such an outwardly peaceful morning, there was yet another fight taking place, involved by none other than the village's number one hyperactive, loud ninja: Uzumaki Naruto.

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"HEY! SASUKE! YOU BASTARD! COME BACK HERE!" Naruto's loud voice could be heard throughout the entire town. "I'M GOING TO PROVE I'M STRONGER THAN YOU!"

"You idiot, we don't have time for all this. Kakashi-sensei wants to see us…" the ever cool Sasuke replied.

"Stop goofing off, Naruto!" Sakura retorted.

The three young ninjas of Team 7 rushed through the town, leaping from rooftop to rooftop and running along the ground if necessary. Sasuke has returned from joining Orochimaru and no one was really sure why. He just turned up one day, claiming he was once again a Konoha Ninja. The vast majority of the village were eager to have their one and only Uchiha return but some of senior ninjas knew better. After a thorough interrogation and examination, he was once again a part of Team 7. Of course, Sakura was happy to have the love of her life coming back to her but even more so, Naruto had his rival again. This was why he made so many challenges to Sasuke, as if he was trying to make up for lost time.

Finally, they arrived to the meeting place and as usual, Kakashi-sensei was not in sight. The meeting place today was where they trained and became genins.

"Dammit…is he going to make us wait three hours again?" Naruto complained.

"Shut-up, idiot," Sasuke replied, leaning against a tree. "As if this isn't pestering enough…"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!" Naruto yelled. "Come on Sasuke! Let's fight!"

Naruto stood in front of Sasuke, standing in an offensive stance. Sakura sighed and looked away.

"Naruto," she began. "Why don't you just give up? Sasuke-kun will never…"

"Fine, let's do this," Sasuke retorted. "We should have about three hours of free time, anyway…"

"Oh, do your best Sasuke-kun!" Sakura squealed, backing away and staring at Sasuke with love hearts in her eyes.

Naruto gritted his teeth and held up his fists.

"I will win!"

They stood ten metres apart, Naruto grinning and have an eager look in his blue eyes while Sasuke stood in a vague, ready-to-go stance and he could not hide the boredom in his eyes. They waited a moment and then they sprang into battle.

"Shadow Replication no-jutsu (sorry, I don't like to use the Japanese names)!" Naruto yelled, using his trademark jutsu. Twenty shadow clones appeared around him.

Sasuke regarded them with wariness and then drew six shuriken, three in each hand.

"Naruto, get ready to be beaten," Sasuke said, a smug look in his eyes.

Naruto and his clones grinned, before shouting as one, "DON'T UNDERESTIMATE ME!" and charged.

Sasuke leapt into the air and flung his shuriken with deadly precision. One clone was stabbed through the eye, another in the back of the neck. Three clones all took one directly in the stomach and the sixth unfortunate clone went down with one hitting him right in the forehead. Six clones disappeared in an instant. Sasuke drew two kunai, one in each hand, and fell among the clones, stabbing and slicing. What looked like a dark blue whirlwind tore through the clones, destroying them mercilessly. Soon, all the clones were down but Naruto was nowhere in sight.

Sasuke's eyes darted left and right, trying to find his opponent. He had not bothered to activate his Sharingan but relied on his normal sight to find Naruto.

Tch…He's going to show himself sooner or later…it's not like he's just going to hide, Sasuke thought to himself and waited. Then, he heard footsteps behind him and the great roaring sounds of great amounts of chakra moving restlessly. He turned around and saw Naruto closing in, Rasengan in his hand. Sasuke raised his kunai and tensed his body, preparing to meet the attack head on.

"Sasuke-kun! Watch out!" Sakura's cries could be heard over the noise made by Naruto's Rasengan but Sasuke paid them little heed. He never did.

Naruto homed in on Sasuke, thrusting his Rasengan into Sasuke. However, just at the last moment, when Naruto was committed to his attack and could not turn back, Sasuke side-stepped, ducked and swept his leg across the ground, over where he was just standing. He effectively tripped Naruto, sending him sprawling onto the ground. Naruto's Rasengan slammed into the ground, grinding away the dirt and rocks. There was an explosion of chakra and debris flew everywhere. From the onlooker's point of view, Sakura raised her hands and arms, shielding herself from the flying shrapnel.

The dust and smoke cleared and revealed today's victor: Sasuke, standing over Naruto, holding a kunai to his throat.

"I win, Naruto," Sasuke said.

He took the kunai away from Naruto and then walked back to where Sakura was, to resume waiting for Kakashi-sensei. However, before he could get there, he heard Naruto shout out.

"SASUKE! I CAN STILL FIGHT! I WON'T GIVE UP UNTIL I BEAT YOU!"

Sasuke looked over his shoulder, annoyance etched into his eyes.

"Naruto, I beat you today. I will beat you tomorrow. You will never beat me."

Naruto struggled to his feet and then faced Sasuke defiantly.

Suddenly, of all times, Kakashi appeared.

"Yo! Sorry I'm late! I was lost in the hustle and bustle of…" he began.

"LIAR!" Sakura and Naruto yelled, not even letting him finish.

The recent match between Naruto and Sasuke was forgotten for the moment.

"…you could've at least let me finish…" Kakashi muttered.

"What mission do we have today?" Sasuke asked, ignoring the other two.

"Well…Sasuke…it's been a while since we've seen you," Kakashi-sensei remarked. "After-all, you went off to join Orochimaru and the Sound-Nins but…"

"I'm back now."

"Yes, exactly. I want to test you, to see your current strength. I want you to have a battle with Naruto now and…Naruto? What happened to you?"

"Eh…nothing much…ehehe…Sasuke! PREPARE YOURSELF!"

"Here we go again…" muttered Sasuke, his Sharingan appearing, before he drew a kunai.

FIN