Please Note: If you're reading this as a follower because it updated, I uploaded two chapters today. This is the second.
Sakura has the sense of mind to grab Naruto and stop him from doing- well, whatever it is that moron has the impulse of doing. "You can talk to her later, later!" she hisses, and since Sakura seems to have Naruto wrangling duty under control, Sasuke takes the time to examine this other Uzumaki.
He knows Naruto has absolutely no family. Doesn't even know his parents, that's how little family he has, so to have a relative or at least someone with the same name come out of nowhere…
Rock is excitedly talking with his sensei, but Uzumaki Karin is quietly making her way down to the floor. She's messed up, her clothes ripped and streaks of blood on her arms and her shirt. With short, bright red hair and glasses, she doesn't look like Naruto at all. Scars cover her arms, and the way she holds herself… it reeks of timidness. More like Hinata than Naruto.
Still, an Uzumaki was an Uzumaki.
"Moron, you don't want to distract her," he says, and that seems to calm Naruto down.
He stares at her as if she'll vanish, after a moment, Sasuke leans in to brush his shoulder against Naruto's. The blonde stiffens and then relaxes. "Right. We'll find her afterwards, right?"
Sakura smiles. "Promise, Naruto."
That resolved, the three refocus on the arena below, and Kagari snorts beside them. Sasuke glances at him. "What?" he demands, and the Ame genin only shrugs – before he can answer, Rock vaults over the side and lands neatly, falling right into a ready position, right arm outstretched in front of him.
"It is an honor to face you," he says.
Karin falls into her own position, clearly ready to flee, hand on her kunai pouch. She says nothing, and the proctor begins the battle.
Rock moves. He's fast, so incredibly fast as he zips forward to toss a punch at Karin, and- she dodges, nimbly and neatly. It's so unexpected that Sasuke activates his sharingan.
Neither of them is using any techniques. Rock's speed is based on his own abilities, and Karin is dodging, somehow, with her own taijutsu skills – no techniques. No ninjutsu. No nothing. It's a battle of sheer taijutsu and dodging, and that in and of itself is kind of impressive.
Karin tries striking back, tossing a kunai, but Rock flips over it, and the moment of delay costs her – Rock manages to strike a hit, sinking a fist in her gut and sending her flying. She crashes into the wall and collapses, panting and gasping, but Rock doesn't press it. He hangs back. "Your determination reflects well on you!" he says encouragingly, with a smile, and the girl forces herself to her feet, straightening her glasses.
Her teammate… seems to think otherwise. "Uzumaki!" one of them yells, and Sasuke's eyes flicker over to the other two Kusa genin. One, the one who hadn't spoken, looks bored. He's not even paying attention to the fight, leaning on the rail and staring off into space. The loud one is watching, though, and he sneers. "Just give up already. You need to save your chakra."
For what, Sasuke wonders, but he's not about to yell. Naruto has no such compunctions. "Shut up!" the blonde snarls, glaring across at the Kusa nin. "She's your teammate!" He refocuses his gaze on Karin. "Come on, Karin, you can do it!"
Rock nods. "Yes. The Power of Youth flows strong in you, Uzumaki Karin! Let us continue our bout!"
She looks dumbfounded, glancing between Naruto and Rock in front of her, and something in her face hardens.
And she bites her own arm.
Everyone… stares. Even Rock and his strange sensei seem taken aback, but Sasuke, with his Sharingan on, can see something's happened. The Hyuuga, on the other side, has his Byakugan active as well, and the Uchiha very much wonders what he's seeing.
Whatever that technique was, whatever it does, it gives her the boost she needs to charge forward towards Lee and begin everything again.
Because it goes exactly the same way. Lee striking and Karin barely dodging. Karin attempting to attack and Lee avoiding it as easy as breathing. Lee managing a hit and Karin biting herself and launching herself into the fray. It happens two more times before the girl can't force herself to get up and she lays there, gasping.
The proctor steps over to her. "Do you forfeit?" he asks, and after a moment of hesitation, she nods. "Winner: Rock Lee!"
Rock doesn't celebrate, though, like how Sasuke would expect from such an excitable ninja. Instead, he approaches Karin, squatting down in front of her. "You did well," he says, and he smiles. "You will be an excellent ninja, Uzumaki Karin, I am certain! The Will of Fire burns strongly in you!"
That's not exactly a compliment to a non-Konohan ninja, but Karin still stares at him like he's handed her the world. He offers her a hand, and she takes it, letting him help her to her feet and leaning heavily on him as they start to walk towards the stairs. "Do you mean it?" Sasuke can hear her ask softly, and Lee lights up.
"Of course! A true ninja never gives up, never stops-" Rock begins to wax on about YOUTH and POWER and the WILL OF FIRE, and Sasuke tunes him out at that point. He focuses, instead, on Karin's face. No one should look like that when handed such simple kindness, especially when it's coming from Rock.
Once is an accident. Two times is a coincidence. Three times is a pattern.
He wonders if he'll meet a third Uzumaki.
Sakura is still, thankfully, restraining Naruto from running over to the other side to talk to Karin, but Sasuke is still immensely grateful when the next matches start up.
The girl on Rock's team hands Chouji his ass handily, barely working up a sweat – it's interesting how physical that team is, how many weapons she had. While the Akimichi had certainly tried, motivated by his sensei's promises of barbeque, it's very clearly who is the superior fighter between the two of them.
The Hyuuga – Neji, that's his name – also beats the quiet Kusa genin. It takes not even a minute, perhaps, before the foreign genin is unconscious.
Team Gai is the team to beat, it seems, and Sasuke has to wonder at the fact that all three of them competed in a row. Strange coincidence.
Hinata fights Kabuto's other teammate, and while he's fairly certain the Hyuuga is going to win between the two, it's not as fast as the previous two fights, so the Uchiha takes the time to survey the competition.
There's one Kusa genin remaining. Sasuke isn't even remotely concerned about him – his teammates were pushovers. He only hopes that Naruto gets to fight him, gets to put him in his place. Staying on this side of the arena and not going to talk to Karin is clearly killing him, but right this moment, at least, he's busy cheering on Hinata.
(His gut twists. He forces himself to move on.)
Both Shikamaru and Ino of Team 10 remain. Ino is… nothing. Sasuke is positive Naruto could beat her easily. He's… not so certain about Sakura. (Maybe. Hopefully.) Shikamaru, on the other hand, is a mystery. While the Nara scraped by in class, he's a Nara. They're like… inherently lazy, and thus he could be grossly competent. Honestly, even Sasuke would be wary about facing him, mostly because of his lack of knowledge.
While the puppeteer from Sand had lost badly to Shino, Sasuke knows it was a bad match-up. They seem stronger, very much so, and Sabaku no Gaara especially. Naruto against them would be interesting. Sakura against them would be death.
Kiba is the only remaining member of Team 8 who hasn't fought, yet, and he's strong. Team 8 as a whole is – Team 10 is the one rookie team that… slacks.
Mubi sidles up next to him. "Checking out the competition?" he asks, and Sasuke glances at him. Gives a short nod, and Mubi hums, glancing down to where Hinata is neatly dodging the bendy Konoha genin, jabbing him in his shoulder and locking up that whole arm. "Naruto seemed awfully surprised to hear of another Uzumaki. It's not like they're that uncommon."
Sasuke is… curious, now. "You have Uzumaki in Ame?"
The other boy nods. "Yeah. They sort of went everywhere after Uzushio fell, I think. Except Kiri." He snorts, as if that should mean something to the Uchiha, but he comes up completely blank.
He frowns. "Uzushio?"
Mubi looks over and frowns in return. "You've never heard of it? It's where the Uzumaki clan hails from. I would've thought you'd learn about that in history class. We did, in Ame."
Sasuke has never, ever heard of Uzushio. He didn't even know Naruto had a clan. That's… that feels wrong. That feels very, very wrong. If it's something that's so common knowledge that Mubi is surprised he doesn't know it, why hasn't he learned it? Sasuke was the top of his class. It isn't like Naruto, who often misses things – if Sasuke doesn't know it, chances are, no one in his class knows of that information.
What had he been thinking earlier? Three times is a pattern?
He's sure as hell found it.
"Hn. Konoha puts more emphasis on… practical skills," he says, in a way that shuts down the conversation, and Mubi nods.
"I see," he says, and that's that.
It's almost impossible now for him to focus on the battle, on the exam, and Sasuke itches to call a conference with his team right that moment. Naruto deserves to know something like this. Sakura would be incredibly helpful in looking things up – and Sasuke doesn't quite want to use up his time on that, if possible.
But Naruto lets out a loud cheer as Kabuto's teammate falls and Hinata is declared the winner, and Sasuke shelves that for now. Tucks it up, neat as can be, in the 'look into this after the exams' box, right next to 'find out what happened to the Oto genin' and 'who the fuck is Orochimaru'.
Sakura giggles, on Naruto's other side. "Do you like her?" she asks Naruto curiously, and the boy turns red.
"I d-dunno, Sakura, she's kinda weird!"
Sasuke snorts. "Idiot." He ignores the way that eases something in his chest, even as Naruto rounds on him.
"Oy, Sasuke, what does-"
He stops. Everyone sort of… stops, because Sabaku no Gaara flickers to the center of the arena. Sasuke hadn't even been paying attention to the announcements, and as a unit, Team 7 stops their shenanigans to glance up at the sign.
Gaara verses… Nara Shikamaru.
A/N: thanks for reading! as per usual, you can find me on tumblr on my writing blog ftcoye and my personal chadsuke.