It's almost 2025 and I've still somehow managed to catch Covid lmao
If you're like me and think you don't need to worry about it anymore, well, think again. At least I'm among the lucky ones to whom it's no worse than the regular flu... *sigh*

Let's start this from the beginning

Grand Assembly

- Part 4 -

"Competition"

II

"The exams these days really are nothing like back in my days…"

Itachi knew better than to fall for Shisui's bait, but his mother evidently had no such reservation. "Try not to sound like an old man, Shisui. They were still mostly village-exclusive when you took them over a decade ago, weren't they? Of course modern exams would differ from that. With so many more participants from all over the continent, it only makes sense."

"Has it truly been only a decade? It feels so much longer! To me, it seems almost as if a lifetime has passed since those days! Is this what it feels like to grow old?!"

Naturally, that exclamation was accompanied by Shisui dramatically grasping his chest, with him doing his worst to appear genuinely hurt.

"If you think of yourself as old already, I wonder what you think I am."

He half expected his friend to immediately backpaddle and apologise profoundly for his blunder. That would very much be in character with the usual light-hearted act he did when he was in either a good mood or pretending to be in such. However, he unexpectedly shot Itachi's mother a cheeky grin instead and said, "Something banal as age would never dare to touch you, Mikoto-oba-san! You're far above such mortal failings!"

All he got in response at first was a single, elegantly raised eyebrow. Then, with a small huff and a quirk of her lips, his mother relented with a, "It's a shame Izumi isn't here. I'm sure she would appreciate such compliments even more than I do."

Indeed, neither Izumi nor Itachi's father had managed to join them today. There was just too much work to do. Sasuke would undoubtedly be disappointed when he found out, but it couldn't be helped. The very fact that their father had to prioritise the investigations into the recent break-ins over the finals of the Chūnin Exams despite his own son participating in them spoke volumes about how much progress was being made.

Or perhaps it would be more fitting to say that it spoke volumes about how little progress there was to speak of, come to think of it.

The conversation drifted off after that. Any other time, Shisui would probably have continued to play the group's sole entertainer while his mother amusedly encouraged him by engaging in his silliness beyond reason, but while people who didn't know him might miss it, he was clearly exhausted. He must have pushed himself more than was recommendable on his last mission. Itachi didn't hold it against him; if what he had heard about his friend's discoveries was true, he would have hurried to get back to Konoha as soon as possible as well if he had been in his position.

However, it meant that Shisui was evidently not up to his usual standard. He would frankly have been better off taking a few days to rest instead of joining him and his mother in the stands.

But it was what it was, and not seeing a point in starting an argument he wouldn't win, neither he nor his mother had said anything.

Itachi focused back on the ongoing match in the arena as he dismissed those melancholic thoughts.

He does have a point about the exams this year being something else even by modern standards, though…

It wasn't unheard of for a participant to stand out in particular or for a single fight to outshine every other by a lot. Far from it. The sheer number of talented finalists this year was extraordinary by every metric, though. He had known that, of course, with him having been involved in the planning that resulted in many of those participants in the first place, but seeing it first-hand was still a bit off-putting.

There were so many Genin this year that could have been the highlight of the show every other year that ultimately none of them could truly outperform their competition.

The first two matches were already on the same level as his own match against Yugito had been all these years ago, with the Jinchuriki of the One-Tail and Haku both having put on an impressive show, and the third match was well on its way to match theirs.

Kurisu from Kumogakure took a similar approach to the fight as Gaara had done. The details differed, though. Whereas the latter had demonstrated his dominance by pointedly controlling the flow of the fight, Yugito's student very obviously chose to play with her opponent. It was very much akin to a cat playing with a mouse. All her attacks completely overwhelmed the poor Kiri-nin's own techniques, she hit him again and again just powerful enough for it to hurt but without actually eliminating him, and she was taking her time instead of seizing blatant openings.

Were this any other Chūnin Exams, it would have made her and her village look bad. Making a Genin that was so much stronger than her rank implied participate went completely against the purpose of the exams and would have angered every other participating village. It was only because of the high level displayed in the previous matches and the fact that every village this year sent only their best that allowed her to act as overbearing as she did.

The crowd was eating it up, too.

By the time the match was over, calling it an overwhelming victory would be an understatement.

For Kirigakure, on the other hand, it merely meant that they had just suffered three crushing defeats in a row.

All kage were witnesses to the matching assignments, so, at the very least, the Mizukage won't be able to accuse us of foul play, but I doubt she's very happy about this. That was admittedly not Itachi's primary concern, however. If Sasuke wins his first match, he will have to fight her next…

As much as he loved his brother, he wasn't sure if he was quite on that level yet.

And his first match is against a Kumo-nin as well, isn't it?

That thought was promptly confirmed when Sasuke and the second female Genin from Kumo walked into the arena.

Well then, shall we see how this goes?

Somehow, Itachi simply knew that somewhere in the arena, Yugito was eagerly awaiting the chance to best him indirectly through her student.

She was competitive that way, after all.

Not that he blamed her. He was honest enough to admit that he was not any better – at least not when his brother was concerned. And speaking of which…

Itachi's lips curved into a small smile as Sasuke entered the arena with an almost insultingly unimpressed air around him. So that's his approach, then? Or at least part of it? It's definitely a good start.

He activated his Sharingan almost without a second thought.

After all, the Uchiha might be most famous for how they used their eyes in combat, but what was the point of possessing an ability that allowed you to remember everything you saw with absolute clarity if you never used it for anything positive?

Such as, for example, carving the memory of your little brother's first match in the Chūnin Exams into your head?

Judging by the slight surges of chakra he felt next to him, both Shisui and his mother seemed to agree with that sentiment.

Well then, Sasuke. Show us how far you have come, won't you?

Sasuke took his time walking into the arena. His opponent, Karui, had lost her patience halfway down the stairs, huffing and scoffing before stopping to match his pace in favour of rushing ahead while muttering insults under her breath.

Had he not been careful to keep up his nonchalant, uncaring act, he would have smirked at how much he got under her skin.

Karui was already in position next to their proctor by the time he just arrived at the bottom of the staircase. With her arms crossed before her and her feet tapping the ground impatiently, she was the very image of impatience. Good. The more worked up she gets, the better.

Naturally, he made sure to slouch even harder the moment he entered the arena proper, hands pushed deep into his pockets and his expression as nonplussed as he could manage.

The subsequent tick on the girl's forehead that was visible to him, despite how far away she still was, went a long way in improving his mood even further. By the time he finally arrived in front of her and the proctor, she looked just about ready to tear his eyes out. He was almost surprised she managed to control herself enough to not jump him before the match had even begun.

Would she be disqualified if she did in fact attack me before the start of the match? he wondered idly. She should, shouldn't she? Although on the other hand, I suppose they wouldn't want to disappoint all the paying guests, so she might get away with a slap on her wrist – assuming her unwarranted attack doesn't do any critical damage or the likes, mind you.

The thought was intriguing for all that it was unlikely to actually happen.

Just as the proctor was about to raise his voice, Sasuke beat him to it:

"You look unwell. Are you sure you're in any condition to fight?"

If looks could kill, the one Karui shot him in response to his words should have made him drop dead on the spot.

He knew that the student of a kunoichi even his brother respected would have so little self-control as to actually attack him before the official start of their match. No, while it would be nice if it were to work against all odds, the primary reason he delayed the start with more quips was the little talk he had with Shino earlier. The boy's idea, while daring, was interesting, and despite it posing some slight risk to Sasuke himself, he had decided to go along with it, nevertheless.

It wasn't as if he had to do much, anyway. All he needed to do was buy as much time as possible before the match started.

"You should worry about yourself!" the girl exclaimed, taking a single step forward and only stopping from going even further because of the proctor's sharp glance. "The only one that looks unwell will be you after the match is over!"

He made sure to wear the kind of aloof expression that Naruto always said made him look like, quote, 'an arrogant asshole' as he replied, "Will I now? Bold words coming from someone that couldn't land as much as a single serious blow on either of my teammates before."

During the second exam in the Forest of Death, they had indeed clashed against the team from Kumogakure, and whereas Sasuke had been busy holding his own against the team's leader, Kurisu, Karui and her male teammate had been fighting Naruto and Sakura.

The fight had ended prematurely, sure, but it had been just long enough to show that neither side had been notably stronger or weaker than the other – or at least that's what it might look like at first glance.

"Don't kid yourself! It was obvious that we were in a much better position before you got lucky and were bailed out by those Suna freaks!"

"Is that so?" he asked, walking the balancing act of trying to sound genuinely confused, as if that was news to him, and utterly uncaring at the same time. "That's not quite how I remember it, though."

Karui took another step forward despite the proctor warningly raising his hand. "Then maybe I should refresh your memory a little, you bastard!"

This time, Sasuke didn't reply at all beyond a simple smirk.

Judging by the almost inhuman growl that emerged from her throat, it was very effective.

"I think that's quite enough," the proctor finally decided to intervene. "If you're done posturing, I will start the match now." Then, under his breath in a voice just barely loud enough for them to hear, he added, "At least folks can be sure to get another interesting match, huh?"

Sasuke concurred with a lazy nod, the smirk never leaving his face. Karui, on the other hand, didn't respond at all, but her general demeanour was more than enough to express her agreement.

The proctor raised his hand. "All set?" he asked, only to jerk his arm down before either of them could answer. "Go!"

Karui didn't waste a single second before drawing her sword and rushing at him.

In a move that might admittedly seem uncharacteristic for him, he jumped backwards instead of doing the same, his Sharingan spinning in his eyes.

She wouldn't be able to see it because she was smart enough to avoid direct eye contact with an Uchiha, but his eyes had evolved since the last time their two teams met. Both his eyes had two tomoe each now.

"Don't run, you coward!" Karui called after him, uselessly throwing a bunch of shuriken in an attempt to slow him down.

Sasuke didn't waste his breath on a response. An amused huff just loud enough for her to hear was more than sufficient to rile her up even further, anyway.

He kept retreating while she kept following. It was a bit like a game of cat and mouse, with the sole difference of the one believing themselves the cat being in truth the mouse and vice versa. The muddy ground that was a leftover of Haku's match earlier made getting a secure grip a tad more difficult than it should be, unfortunately, but Naruto's opponent had done a good enough job at remodelling the arena with his earth release techniques for that to not become an issue.

However, she did get closer and closer with every passing second, and as much as he hated to admit it, that wasn't solely because he wanted her to.

He waited until her latest sword slash passed mere millimetres in front of his face to flash through hand seals:

"Katon: Hibashiri!" (Fire Release: Running Fire)

The flames had barely left his mouth before they spread to the left and right in a curve to form a semi-circular, protective barrier in front of him.

Karui's frustrated growl was audible even over the roaring flames, but while that was amusing, and despite his slight disappointment at the fact that she managed to stop in time to avoid running into the fire, it was neither her reaction nor the lack of harm done with the technique that he cared about.

After all, it was but a distraction and a way to guarantee she couldn't see him for a few valuable seconds.

Sasuke watched another version of himself sink into the ground after summoning a stupidly chakra-consuming shadow clone with another quick hand seal just in time before his technique dispersed.

His opponent was upon him again right away, and this time, he met her head-on while mentally beginning to count down from one hundred and twenty.

From the left, right, above, left again; Karui's slashes were quick and precise despite her visibly enraged state.

But Sasuke managed to keep up just fine. Compared to Kurisu, whom he had been fighting during the second exam, her attacks were almost sluggish. Furthermore, he had a tad more experience practising against opponents using swords than Naruto did. For all that his friend joined his training sessions more often than not, he didn't join all of them, and it showed now.

Karui might have been able to keep Naruto on the back foot through a combination of surprise and skill, but the same wouldn't help her against Sasuke.

Consequently, this was a much more even fight.

Doesn't change the fact that she's still good, though, he acknowledged as he got yet another cut on his forearm. It wasn't his first wound and would probably not be his last, superficial as they might be.

He promptly got even a moment later when he managed to land a strike on her shoulder – a hit as weak as her cut had been shallow, but a hit, nevertheless.

Sasuke was also slowly getting the hang of Karui's style, too. Swift and precise she might be, but there was a rhythm to it; left, right, from above, left again, then repeating the same thing in reverse, and then going backwards. Understanding this meant he could predict what she would do next and therefore–

Karui jumped away in mid-strike just as he thought he had seen through her, throwing her weapon into the air to get her hands free, and flew through hand seals in the blink of an eye.

"Raiton: Amigumo!" (Lightning Release: Spider Web)

She smoothly fell into a crouch to slam her hands on the ground and release a surge of electricity that then poured in every direction to form something akin to a web with her as its centre.

It was his Sharingan that saved him. Caught off-guard by the sudden change in behaviour he might have been, but even as his brain struggled to keep him, his eyes saw her movements, analysed the hand seals, and predicted what was going to happen a moment before it did. It was this split-second of forewarning that allowed him to jump high into the air before the lightning could actually reach him.

He had started to form hand seals of his own the moment his feet left the ground, and he finished them at the same time his opponent pushed off the ground.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)

The searing hot fireball made a straight line for the incoming Karui. Dodging in mid-air wasn't easy, so even though he was sure she would find a way to block it, his technique should be more than sufficient to buy him enough time to either get back to the ground or come up with a more effective approach.

The only warning Sasuke got before he had to clumsily twist away was a shout of, "Raimei Giri!"

A curved arc of lightning, accompanied by the crack of thunder, tore through his fireball and missed him by mere inches. Karui was following right in its path, an almost feral grin on her face and her sword still extended from her recent slash. She cut through my technique?!

There was no time to properly process that revelation, as he was too busy defending himself.

Leaning out of the way of her blade, he stopped the subsequent punch in the palm of his hand and immediately tried to use that grip to hurl her away. Unfortunately, Karui replied by pulling up her knee in a manner that forced him to let go of her lest he wanted her to break his arm.

Sasuke used that opportunity to form a hand seal.

Leaning backwards until he was almost diagonally to the ground to avoid another slash, he simultaneously threw a kick of his own while managing to form two more hand seals before he had to cross his arms to block her axe kick.

His dexterity allowed him to make a fourth hand seal despite the rather impractical position of his arms.

Her kick was strong enough to make his arms throb and push him downwards – or at least it would have if she hadn't grabbed him by his left ankle before he could get farther than a meter or two.

A quick kick with his right foot against the flat side of her blade stopped it from impaling him there and then, and Sasuke even managed to get a fifth seal in before he pulled himself towards her with the leg she was still holding to punch the wrist of her hand that held the sword.

Although she didn't lose the grip on her weapon, that distracted her enough for him to pull his foot free, and it gave him the time necessary for another hand seal, too.

He allowed her next punch to hit him on the side of his head instead of blocking or fruitlessly trying to dodge it to focus on finishing the seventh and final hand seal for his technique. Karui, realising what was going to happen, immediately let go of her offensive with an angry snarl before channelling charka into her sword in preparation for whatever she thought he was about to unleash on her.

For once, the smirk he shot her just before flames burst out of his mouth was not just a mere act to infuriate her, which in turn made the blatant irritation on her face all the more satisfying.

The great fireball he released was neither particularly great nor actually aimed at her. Instead, it shot into the empty air above them both, and in terms of size and strength, it just about had to be the weakest variation of that jutsu he had used in years.

It did what it was supposed to, however.

Namely, propelling him downwards at high speed.

Twisting around in mid-air mere moments before hitting the ground, he landed in a crouch and wasted absolutely no time drawing as many kunai as he could hold with both hands, complete with explosion tags and all. A couple of them, he threw at the still falling figure of his opponent, but the majority of them, he spread out in a generous radius of where she would be landing.

Sasuke paid Karui barely any mind even when she began to flash through hand seals of her own, and as soon as he had finished laying his trap, he rushed away.

The explosion going off behind his retreating back was a mix between the telltale bang of paper bombs and the roar of lightning. He didn't turn around to see how much – if any – damage he had caused, though. Simply put, it didn't matter. His real plan had yet to begin, after all.

Even throughout all that had happened so far, Sasuke had never stopped counting.

Twenty-two, twenty-one, twenty, nineteen…

It was a whooshing sound in the wind that made him reflexively duck without slowing down. As any proper shinobi would, he recognised the sound of a thrown weapon, of course. Having a decent read on her character, it was a bit surprising she had opted for that instead of a jutsu, but he supposed if she betted on him focusing too much on a potential build-up of chakra to notice the comparatively more subtle approach, it was logical enough.

He only realised that something was very wrong when the weapon in question soared over his head and he saw that it was his opponent's sword she had thrown after him.

But that's her main weapon! he mentally exclaimed while coming to a sudden stop. Why would a swordsman give up their sword like this?!

"You didn't actually think I fell for those cheap provocations, did you?" Karui called out, and when he looked over his shoulder towards her, he saw that she was mostly fine. Her clothes were a bit singed and there were some scuffs here and there, but other than that, she was uninjured. More importantly, however, was that she was wearing a wide, gloating grin. "How stupid do you think I am?"

That last statement was accompanied by a one-handed ram seal.

A horrible suspicion formed in his guts, and Sasuke jerked back around just in time to see what she had done. There, invisible to the naked eye but very much obvious to his Sharingan, he could see the glow of chakra building up underneath the cord of the sword's hilt. And those forms…

It's a seal! No, not just one – there are two of them! A storage one and… His eyes widened. That's the same kind of chakra seal Naruto has been using!

No sooner had he realised this than dozens of metal wires with sharp arrowheads at the ends burst out of the first seal.

His Sharingan immediately went into overdrive to predict all the different paths even as his body struggled to keep up with the rapid stream of information, and Sasuke thanked his lucky star that he had stopped when he did. Had he been any closer to the sword when the seal was released, he doubted he would have been able to dodge all the incoming projectiles.

Even as it was, that single attack resulted in more cuts than the entire preceding fight.

Pretending to be affected by my provocations, playing along for this long, and using this attack only after I started to get cocky… rather than leading her along, hasn't she the one who tricked me?

Even though he knew his plan wasn't ruined yet, admitting that he had misjudged his opponent this badly still stung.

"Raiton: Kousatsu no Wana!" (Lightning Release: Cord Saw Trap)

Sasuke saw Karui holding one of the many wires in her hand from the corner of his eyes, but he had no time to do anything with that information as it was at this moment that lightning chakra burst simultaneously from her hand and the second seal on the sword to spread across all the different wires in a flash.

Next, the now-charged wires surrounding him in a large ellipsoid began to contract all at once.

Time almost seemed to slow down as he fanatically sorted through option after option, only to dismiss them all the instant they came to his mind.

Dodging was out of the question, and none of his usual techniques were suitable to block something like this. A powerful enough fire technique might be enough to blow the wires off-course, but some would probably still fly true. Besides, there was also the chance that he wouldn't be fast enough to unleash it in every direction to block all of them in the first place. He had copied an earth technique to form a wall from Kakashi, too, but seeing as earth techniques were weak to lightning ones, well…

His hands had begun rushing through the hand seals of the only thing that could save him long before his head had consciously made the right connection.

"Futon: Reppū Dan!" (Wind Release: Gale Blast)

Sasuke's chakra affinities were fire and lightning. Consequently, wind release techniques were by far the worst choice for him. While his Sharingan technically allowed him to learn them easily enough, they went too much against his nature to ever become natural to him. After all, wind was weak to one of his affinities while simultaneously being his other's fundamental weakness as well. Even when copying wind release techniques with his eyes, he could barely use them at an acceptable level, and practising them was hard due to how much charka it required to use jutsu that didn't match one's affinity.

The only reason he had bothered to learn this technique between the second and third exams despite all that was because he had hoped to use it as an ace up his sleeves against Kurisu. With that in mind, the fact that he had to use it now against her teammate was rather annoying.

But not annoying enough for him to not use it and risk losing, of course.

It did what it was supposed to, blowing away not only all the charged wires before they could slice into him, but even throwing Karui off her feet, and that was well worth both its premature use and the severe chakra cost that came with it.

He didn't waste any time escaping away with the fastest body flicker he could manage while mentally finishing his mental countdown:

Four, three, two, one…

The innumerable number of paper bombs his shadow clone had been placing underground since the start of the match exploded all at once the very moment Sasuke appeared at the edge of the arena, shaking the ground and deafening even the sounds coming from the crowd for several seconds.

Sasuke turned around to observe the results of his work:

Having been carefully placed close to the surface but not too close, lest a random attack set them off or they did too much damage to the structure of the arena itself, the explosion had caused an implosion of sorts, resulting in the ground collapsing in on itself without too much of a dust cloud. Similarly, because his clone had been instructed to focus on the centre of the arena, there was an approximately twenty feet wide ring curling along the edge of it that was mostly undamaged – which was exactly why Sasuke had chosen to go there before the explosions set off.

His opponent hadn't been as fortunate.

Karui was cowering on all fourths at the outer edges of the destruction, a clear sign that she had managed to get her footing back and tried to follow him before his trap set off, and was bleeding from several wounds all over her body. None of them lethal or even very dangerous, but constraining, nevertheless.

Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, Sasuke started running towards her once more.

To her credit, Karui struggled to her feet and fell into a fighting stance right away. She clearly had no intentions of giving up despite her injuries and no longer having her sword. He was not deterred, however. Whether she liked it or not, this match was already over.

His clone waited until he was almost upon her to make its move. Just as the two of them were about to get within each other's reach, its hands burst from the cracked ground, grabbed her ankles, and pulled her down. Not a lot, mind you, but still enough so to immobilise her and make her lose her balance.

Enough to make her unable to avoid his punch to her face, too.

Her body toppled backwards, the fact that her feet were still stuck in the ground making the whole thing look rather awkward, and before she could recover, Sasuke followed up on his attack by seizing her by the chin.

Even befuddled as she was by the combination of her injuries and the blow to her head, she still tried to stop him, but it was useless.

The moment he forced her to make eye contact with him, Karui went limp in his arms as his Genjutsu took hold.

Sasuke was kind enough to gently lower her to the ground instead of just dropping her like a sack of potatoes. His mother would probably have had his hide later if he dared to even consider the latter.

Only then, when he finally allowed himself to relax and look up at the stands, did he notice the roaring cheers of the crowd. The sight – and sound! – was almost enough to make him take a startled step back, and although he managed to avoid that embarrassment at the last second, he couldn't quite stop his eyes from widening, his Sharingan immortalising the imagery for him forever.

He barely heard when the proctor officially declared him the winner, and frankly, he doubted anyone in the stands did either.

Not that anyone seemed to care, mind you.

I won, he thought a bit numbly. Not that there was ever any doubt about it, of course, but… I won.

At that moment, he didn't even care that he had been forced to try harder than he had expected or that he had used more chakra than he would have liked. The gratification of knowing that he had just proven himself in front of literally hundreds, if not thousands of people from all over the continent was just too overwhelming.

The gratification of knowing that he had just won a real fight under the watchful eyes of his family made him feel a sense of accomplishment unlike any he had ever experienced.

He couldn't spot them right away, but he knew that they were there somewhere, and while none of them other than perhaps Shisui were likely to cheer as exuberantly as the rest of the crowd as opposed to clapping politely, he also knew that the sentiment was ultimately the same.

'Did you see this?' he wanted to ask, even though he knew he would never actually do so. 'That was me! I did that!'

Surely this match was as good as Itachi's during his exams, right? At least in terms of plans implemented and the extent of destruction caused, this had to be as good, if not even better than his brother's approach had been!

I have to do even better in my second fight, though…

His next match would be against Kurisu, and she was bound to be stronger than Karui.

That would be his real test, and Sasuke had every intention of acing it.

"Man, that must have been, like, an insane number of paper bombs! I knew I liked the kid for a reason!"

Yugito was barely listening to Anko. The other woman had been running a constant commentary since they arrived in the arena; if Yugito bothered to truly take in everything she said, her brain would have long since been overflown with useless information.

However, while before it had been pure sensibility, the reason she ignored her now was because her eyes were focused on the medical team carrying away her student.

She was confident Karui would be fine. Considering she was already awake again and complaining to the medics that she didn't need any help and certainly didn't need to be carried – Yugito didn't need to be close enough to either hear her or read her lips to know what she was saying – while trying and failing to get off the stretcher, she would be fine as day sooner rather than later.

If Yugito weren't convinced of that, she would already be down there at her side rather than remaining up in the stands.

"But man," Anko continued with a fond sigh, no more bothered by her lack of response than before. "That sight wakes memories, doesn't it? Reminds me of what happened during our exams back in the day."

That made her finally turn around. "Funnily enough, I find looking back to that much less nostalgic than you do."

The exams themselves had been fine, and the fights, particularly the finals against Itachi, had been enjoyable, but Yugito could have really gone without all the damn paper bombs thrown at her.

Itachi, Anko, and even that male teammate of theirs – Yukio, wasn't it? – had all gone far and beyond what could be considered a reasonable usage of those blasted things. Yes, as a kunoichi, she could acknowledge that they used them very effectively, but as someone who enjoyed a good fight, it had been nothing short of infuriating!

Anko shot her a teasing grin. "Aww, don't tell me you don't like thinking back to how we first met?"

"There were ups and downs," she told her in her most deadpan voice. "I did enjoy the part where I beat you, for one."

"Oh wow, I liked the part where I poisoned you the best, too! We have so much in common!"

Yugito snorted, and a moment later, Anko laughed aloud as well. Then, she redirected her gaze back to the arena where a couple of Konoha-nins were now checking the fighting grounds. If she were to take a guess, she assumed they were probably examining whether the matches could continue on the ragged field or if it was necessary to repair the ground before the next pair of Genin could have a go.

The next two matches will include his students, won't they? she mused absently despite already knowing that to be the case. I don't care much about the first one beyond some idle curiosity, but the second one will be against Omoi…

Although the Uchiha boy who had just beaten Karui wasn't one of Itachi's students, him being his brother meant basically the same:

He was now indirectly leading in the little, unofficial competition between the two of them.

Well, this was only the opening match, anyway. Let's see if we can't get even yet.

After all, they both had still two students in the game.