Chapter 58. Meeting team 10.

"Kakashi, my eternal Rival!"

We looked up to see a man clad in green spandex falling from the sky. Kakashi sighed in defeat before the man tackled him to the ground. Or so it seemed. In a puff of smoke, Kakashi disappeared and left the man hugging a tree log.

"You won't get away!" the man declared, his shiny bowl hair, crashed into his strong cheeks as he head swerved around to Kakashi's location. He body flickered away and a series of explosions rang out in the surrounding trees. The ground shook with the impact of their battle causing us to stumble.

Neji covered his face in shame as his sensei went on a rampage. We came to their training ground with the intention of meeting the team, however as soon as Kakashi stepped onto the field Guy attacked him. I already knew it would happen and walked further away from Kakashi, as a result affected by Guy's tackle as Naruto was.

"What the hell!?" Naruto exclaimed, trying to regain his balance after the mini earthquake. Sasuke remained quiet but his face was every bit annoyed, he looked over at the pitiful Neji and his scowl softened somewhat.

The prideful Hyuga was dying of shame. He was so excited to introduce us to his sensei, a man he couldn't beat in combat. Aside from me and his father, there weren't many people who could match him in combat let alone beat him. That man that had defeated the genius Hyuga was chasing after Kakashi like a fanboy. I pitied his pride.

I already knew this would happen and wasn't as surprised as them, just a bit amused. I couldn't laugh though, if i did Neji would surely cry.

Now that I think about it, a Neji that is red faced with tears in his eyes, is kind of cute. I turned to him but he was still hiding his face. Should I tease him?

"Neji you are here."

I turned to the new voice to see two genins running towards us. One was a mini Might Guy and the other, a wanna be, Chun-li

Rock Lee and Ten Ten then.

Neji looked up at them and regained some of his usual posture. He gestured to the two as he spoke.

"They are my teammates," he said dismissively. He really looked down on them huh?

Lee stood at attention and saluted.

"I am Rock Lee, it is nice to meet you!" he yelled, with enthusiasm. Rocky mountains? It felt like the high mountains in China. The air there is clean and the scene of the farmlands below was breathtaking. Ah, why did this guy have to have such a pleasant chakra. His large eyes looked towards me and held. Right, he loved Sakura, didn't he?

"You. You are Sakura right?" He smiled at me, his teeth shining. It really shined ya know. "I will protect you with my life so be my girlfriend!"

Silence. No one dared to speak though I could see Sasuke and Neji slowly backing away in the corner of my eyes.

I smiled at the boy, he was cute, even with his thick eyebrows and wide eyes. His green outfit is a bit… and with the orange leg warmer. There really needs to be a fashion police. He is a good kid, there's no need to hurt his feelings by calling him weird. Though I thought that. I couldn't let go of what he said before.

Protect? Who needs protecting? This guy who got his ass handed to him by Human form Gaara. Naruto beat that guy up ya know~

I grit my teeth and the ground below split open, it was only a small crack but it was each to trap Lee's ankle.

"Huh!?" he yelped as his foot went in and wouldn't come out. "What has happened?"

"Protect huh?" I kept the smile on my face as I saw him struggle, so cute. "Shouldn't you worry about yourself. You can't protect anyone if you die first. A meat shield is no good, you know. A man that is searching for a mate should search for one in his range." After all, Tenten is right there. She likes you ya know, or she will soon. Shouldn't you give her some attention, if only a little bit. You can't lose to Neji, he will surely reject her.

Lee became pale and hung his head, depressed. I blinked. What? Did I say something wrong? Naruto smirked smugly at Lee as Sasuke avoided eye contact.

"Do you have to be such a bitch?" Tenten yelled at me. I looked at the older kunoichi and frowned. Was she alway this vulgar? Calling me names is uncalled for, and anyway, are you fine giving your future husband away just like that?

"You don't agree? You should look at the people in your range first, before you go further. I'm a bit far from your range, I think you should go back to the start and look again." I'm not even in the same team as you, I don't like long distance relationships, it wouldn't work. To make matters worse we are on the same team with our future mates. Would that not count as cheating?

"Do you think you're better than us!?" Tenten yelled standing defensively in front of Lee. I smiled. She was protecting her man, how cute.

"Of course!" Naruto yelled back behind me, moving forward. "We're the strongest!"

Oh? Why does this look like a fight?

"Neji, are you friends with these guys?" She went to Neji for help.

"I wouldn't call us friends," he muttered.

"We're childhood friends ya know!" Naruto declared proudly. "We train together but Neji still can't beat Sakura!"

"I was going easy on her!" Neji objected.

I remembered the heavy hits that left me bruised and frowned. He called that holding back? My anger spiked a bit.

"Oh~ could it be that big brother was pitying his cute little sister," my voice was sickeningly sweet as I smiled at him. "Then we shough have a serious fight like when we were younger~"

Neji smirked at me.

"If that is what you want."

The main reason for coming here was to test our strength against team ten but I feel like there was a misunderstanding. Awewell it doesn't matter. We got what we came here for.

"Come on Neji, let's put these guys in their place," Tenten said as she took out two scrolls, ready for war.

Team 7 vs team 10. We stood across from each other starting the other team down. I was actually excited to see what happens here. I have fought Neji on numerous occasions but we never met his team. They were strong in their own right and so they were a great reference point.

"We'll do a tag team fight. It'll be one on one until the last man standing," I explained the rules. It was close to the tournament of the chunin exam so this is good exposure.

"First one up on Team seven is Naruto Uzumaki!" I announced, gesturing to him. It was a lifetime ago when I did my last announcement job. I forgot how fun it was.

On the side of the Guy we have…" I paused waiting for their choice. Tenten stepped forward and I smirked. "TenTen the wanna be Tsunade!"

"What!?" she gasped. "How do you!?"

"Are both sides ready~" I ignored her. I raised my hand high and Naruto took a fighting stance, forcing Tenten to do so as well.

"Fight!"

I leap backwards and away from the two as Naruto rushed at Tenten. Tenten unrolled her scroll and summoned kunais which flew at Naruto. Naruto dodged the kunai with quick movement before leaping into the air, coming down with a punch. Tenten was having none of it, leaping back and firing more kunais. With a flick of the wrist Naruto threw shurikens that knocked Tenten's weapons from the air.

"Is that all you can do?" Naruto asked genuinely. Sasuke was probably more of a challenge. Ten then grit her teeth and glared at him.

"Fine then," he raised her scroll high. "I'll show you the difference in our power." she threw the scroll into the air causing it to unravel and spiral around her. With a great leap she was in the midst of the scroll's tornado. She placed her hands on the seals and unsealed weapend one at a time in rapid succession.

The unsealed blades flew down at Naruto like a tornado spitting out its contents. The shower of blades closed in on Naruto who only smirked.

With an outburst of chakra, the blades scattered, no touching the blond.

"Nani!"

I looked back at Neji's dejected face and Lee's confused face as he looked between Naruto and Neji. Tenten landed with a stoned face before she glared at Naruto.

"That was Neji's technique," he growled. Someone doesn't like losing.

"Heh," Naruto laughed. "That wasn't actually his technique. I made it myself. The rotation makes me dizzy." The last part was but a mummer. Forming a wall of chakra sound himself was something

Naruto did when performing any jutsu with his nin existing chakra control. After learning a thing or two from Asuma, he was able to turn that chakra into wind. Least wasteful. So in a way it was his own technique.

"You're nothing but a cheap imitation of Neji," Tenten spat. "A copy can't compete with the original!" with that she leaped back and pulled out two scrolls. Weaving through hand seals the scrolls became like dragons and spiraled into the air. Tenten joined them in the air with a body flicker and began her dance.

Twice the amount of weapons fell down towards Naruto. I was getting dejavu.

"That's going to hit us," Sasuke warned. I looked at the blades descending towards us and frowned. He was right, we were still in the firing range. I needed to adjust that in the next fight.

Naruto frowns, seeming to come to the same conclusion, before summoning a single clone. For some reason I thought he was going to make the Rasengan. Well in a way, I wasn't wrong.

Naruto grabbed his clone's arms and began to spin them around and around. The spin created a

A dome of wind that swept over us and covered us from the downpour of death.

"I can't believe he used a clone just to increase the range of his jutsu. He could have just used more chakra," Neji muttered.

"He's showing off," Sasuke explained as I nodded along. This is where the real fight begins.

Seeing that the attack was ineffective, Tenten switched to plan B, wired glinting in the sunlight as she stood atop her web of strings. With the movement of her fingers, she controlled the weapons like puppets. Scattered blades rose from the ground and pointed their sharpe end at
Naruto.

"Let's see you dodge this!"

From every direction the weapons attacked Naruto.

The blond leaped into the air twisting his body to dodge the inflocks of blades. He stuck to Tenten's webs with chakra and grinned at her.

She flicked her finger and the blades redirected at him. Without missing a beat, Naruto changed at her, dancing around the blades that came at him. Like a spider closing in on its prey, Naruto moved on the wires as though it were his own.

Realizing the futility, Tenten let go of the wire and fell to the ground. She spread her arms and the wire web formed a net around Naruto threatening to trap him.

"Yes you have him, Tenten!" Lee cheered.

"That's what you get for rushing into a fight!" Tenten crossed her arms and the net closed. She grinned before turning towards me. "Who's next!"

"Still me, ya know!"

Tenten's look of disbelief was the best. She looked up at the blond that stood atop her trap.

"How!" Lee couldn't understand, the trap surely caught Naruto, right?

"Byakugan!" Neji looked at the trap with his inhassed vision. "A kunai?"

That's right! My little sunshine used substitution jutsu with his kunai when the trap closed around him. It wasn't quite the flying Raijin but it was close enough to be cool.

"Looks like this really is all you can do," Naruto said in a calm tone, looking down at Tenten. "Then it's my turn."

I smiled.

"Looks like the idiot finally learned to study his opponents," Sasuke smirked at the blond.

"That's our unpredictable ninja for ya."

The boy that rushed into things head first, I'm glad he grew out of that phase. At least now he won't get hurt as much.

Naruto crossed his fingers.

"Shadow clone jutsu."

In a puff of smoke another Naruto stood beside the first. Tenten took a fighting stance reachin for weapons in her pouch. The clone stepped into Naruto's palm and was thrown into the sky. The blue midday sky turned orange as the clone multiplied ten folds.

"You think I'd be scared of a bunch of clones."

Naruto's smirk was every bit foxy as the demon inside him. His blue eyes blazed with chakra and then the clones turned into shurikens.

Was this his way of using "Shuriken Shadow Clone"?

The downpour of death was returned tenfold to the Chun-li wanna be. Instead of moving out of the way, though there was really no where to go, she stood frozen.

"Leaf hurricane!"

"What…?"

In a blur of green, Lee appeared behind Naruto and attacked him.

"Naruto!" I cried out. I was a step away from rushing in and beat his ass when Sasuke leaped forward.

Before Lee could give another attack, Sasuke parred the blow and grabbed Naruto. Lee and Sasuke leap away from each other as the shuriken clones poofed out of existence.

"Lee…" Tenten sounded dejected.

"Worry not Tenten, i will not lose," Lee smiled back at her and she stepped back.

Sasuke dropped Naruto who landed flat on his face.

"You okay?" I asked crouching beside him.

"Damn," he rubbed his head. "I didn't see him coming." he looked at Sasuke's cold face. "Careful he's faster than you," He warned.

Sasuke smirked. "We'll see about that." He stepped forward and I led Naruto a distance away from the fight.

"Second fight!" I called out. "Sasuke Uchiha vs Rock Lee!"

"Begin!"

Lee disappeared in a body flicker and Sasuke joined him. This was a fight of speed it seemed. A shock wave echoed as the two clashed. Sasuke dodged and parried Lee's powerful kicks, his eyes red with the sharingan. He caught Lee's leg and threw him to the ground but Lee rolled with the blow and leaped at him as he recovered.

Sasuke stood his ground as Lee released a valley of kicks. The Uchiha moved around the attack, not taking a single step back. At the sign of an opening he retaliated with his outkick sending Lee back.

"It's not so easy when you don't catch someone off guard is it," Sasuke smiled smugly.

Ah, I see, he's mad on Naruto's behalf. I swear the two are closer since the land of wave.

"I do not need petty tricks to fight, unlike you who has to use his family jutsu just to keep up with me," Lee looked at Sasuke's red eyes with disapproval. "I had to work hard for my speed and strength while you were born with an advantage."

"You sound bitter," Sasuke's smile didn't falter but his mood did darken. "You must think being born with power gives me some unfair advantage." Sasuke body flickered behind kick, delivering an axe kick that was blocked by Lee's bandaged arms. "If you're such an underdog you just have to try harder to beat me."

"I shall!" At that declaration Lee's speed increased and he became a blur. Even for my eyes. I could only see sasuke's body being abused left and right. Even as his eyes looked at where Lee came from his body didn't react.

"Even if your Sharingan can read an opponses movements, it means nothing if your body is too slow to dodge them," Lee's voice echoed around Sasuke.

"Scatter," I whispered, and the Springflys took flight. I closed my useless eyes and saw through theirs. It was still not enough to see Lee's movement though I could see as though everything was in fast forward.

"Allow me."

Hot chakra coiled around my eyes, and everything was red. But then I could finally see Lee fighting at normal speed.

I had his vision before but then I was barely in control of my own body. So this was the sharingan. If this was what Sasuke could see, I don't see why he couldn't react.

"You and I are a terrible match!"

Lee kicked Sasuke under the chin launching him into the sky and I grimaced. Here they go again.

Lee appeared behind Sasuke in a "leaf shadow dance". There was a shift in chakra and I smirked, so that's how it is.

"My hard work will beat your natural talent!" declared as his bandages unraveled. The bandages wrapped around Sasuke, trapping him before Lee hugged him from behind.

"You're finished!" he pointed their body to the ground and plummeted to the ground in a whirlwind.

The ground shook from the impact as they crashed into it. Lee leaped off Sasuke's body that went slack.

"You got him Lee!" Tenten cheered.

Lee turned him back to the Uchiha.

"You rely too much on your natural born talent and that is why you lost. Unlike you I've worked hard to get strong while everything was given to you. Someone who does not earn their power does not deserve it." Lee said proudly as though he won. "Even with all your talent, you can't beat someone without hard work,"

"You really are an idiot," Sasuke said, his voice not coming from the still body but a tree nearby. The Uchiha sat on a branch with a devil may care attitude. "Even Naruto could see through that illusion."

"But how!" Tenten looked back at the body that turned into a log.

"Everyone knows never to look a Uchiha in the eye," Naruto said smugly. It only took him getting his ass handed to him by Fugaku a couple hundred times for him to realize the problem was the red eyes.

"To think I fell for something like that," Lee muttered.

"It's not about being born with power, or working hard for it," Sasuke leaped down from the tree. "It's about what you do with that power. Sakura wasn't born with power and she's one of the strongest people I know. I might have been born with his power but I went through a lot to get it. I didn't have the sharingan at birth, the Uchiha aren't like the Hyuga." Sasuke deactivated his sharingan. "I'll kick your ass without it if it makes you feel better."

With a body flick Sasuke rushed Lee and delivered blow after blow, much the way Lee did him just a moment ago. To rub salt on the wound, Sasuke performed a leaf shadow dance appearing behind Lee's retreating form.

"You!" Lee got out, before Sasuke grabbed his collar and hooked his leg around the right. Lee blocked and Sasuke immediately strikes from the left instead, sending Lee to the ground.

"I'm not done yet," Sasuke said, diving after him. Before Lee could get his bearings, Sasuke delivered an axe kick to Lee's stomach, twice. The Boy crashed into the ground with a groan. But it wasn't over. Sasuke raised his foot high and let gravity pull him down. Lee shields his face on instinct. The ground exploded and dust and dirt clouded the training ground.

"Lee!" Tenten cried.

Seeing only from the eyes of the Springflys, I could only sigh and approach the battle.

When the dust settled, Lee's head was not buried in the ground, nor was Sasuke's foot buried in Lee's face. Neji stood over Lee's body holding Sasuke's foot in his hand.

"The hit wouldn't have killed him, you know," Sasuke said, back flipping out of Neji's hold.

"It's a reflex from fighting Sakura," Neji confessed.

"And with that interference, the last match has been set," I announced walking up to them. "Neji Hyuga vs Sakura Haruno."

"Why do i feel like you're more excited than you should be," Neji turned towards me as Tenten took Lee away.

"It's been a while since we fought seriously," I smirked. "I missed you~"

"If you say it like that, i won't want to fight you," Even as he said that he took a fighting stance.

"We all know your love for me knows no bounds."

"Ready!" Naruto yelled in my place.

Neji activated his Byakugan, and I scattered my summons. Madara still hadn't retracted his chakra so I couldn't open my eyes.

"Fight!"

We moved.

Apparently it's Chun-li and not Chung Lee. Chinese man.

Next chapter

May 24