If Naruto's whiskers were real, he was pretty sure they would have just burnt off.

He barely managed to dodge the roaring fireball sent his way, burrowing under the ground at the last second with Doton: Hiding Like a Mole Jutsu. Using his sensor skills, he pinpointed Sasuke's exact location above him and tried to grab his feet-

Only for a shock to shoot through his body when he made contact. He could feel Sasuke jump away while he was distracted by the pain, and he quickly leapt out of the ground before Sasuke could retaliate by shooting a lightning jutsu into the ground to fry him senseless. Naruto had already lost one spar to that move and he didn't want to experience round two.

The second he was out of the ground, he ran through the tiger, ox, tiger, and rat seals. "Suiton: Water Bullet!" he shouted, gathering Suiton chakra in his stomach and shooting it out in the direction he felt Sasuke's chakra.

"Raiton: Thunderclap Arrow!" Sasuke called out, and an arrow made of lightning collided with the water.

Naruto had to stop shooting water if he didn't want the electrical current from the lightning to make its way to his stomach. Unwilling to let Sasuke win their brief encounter, he quickly made five more hand seals and gathered the water he'd already shot into the air and turned it into a large ball. "Suiton: Water Ball!"

The ball went flying at Sasuke and forced him to dodge, but Naruto knew from experience that wouldn't be the end of it. He was proven right when Sasuke appeared in front of him, obviously haven chosen to dodge under the ball of water, and tried to engage him in taijutsu.

Naruto refused to let Sasuke control the pace of the fight by pushing him into a taijutsu match, something Sasuke always beat Naruto at, and quickly jumped backwards with his hands in the snake seal. "Mokuton: Wood Wall!"

Wood shot out of the ground and he had just enough time to see Sasuke's eyes widen in surprise before the wall cut them off from each other. Naruto winced in sympathy when he heard something, most likely Sasuke's fist, collide roughly with the wall. But he knew that wouldn't be the end of it and quickly made three hand seals. "Doton: Dirt Cloud!"

He slammed his hands against the ground and a cloud of dirt rose off the ground, obscuring the area. He closed his eyes before any of it could irritate them, pressing his fingers against the ground to double check Sasuke's location; meters away on the other side of the wooden wall, likely so he wouldn't be caught in the cloud of dirt.

Naruto grinned. The dirt cloud did exactly what he planned: it bought him time. Sasuke probably wanted to wait for the dirt to resettle, something that didn't take long because Naruto had no control over the dirt after it reached the air, and that'd just leave them in the same position they started in. Plus, Naruto didn't want to give Sasuke the chance to catch his breath.

Forming the snake seal again, Naruto made the wood wall quietly recede into the ground. Then he charged forward, running through a series of hand seals more complex than any he'd used against Sasuke before-

And tripped.

He faceplanted onto the ground, earning himself a mouthful of disgusting dirt when his right foot tried to step on the hole he'd tried to attack Sasuke from. He tried to push himself up, but felt a foot push down against his back. "I win again," Sasuke declared smugly. "If you try to move, I'll fry you with a Raiton jutsu."

Naruto groaned, twisting his head so the side of his face was against the ground and he could spit the dirt out of his mouth. "I hate you."

The pressure against his back went away and Naruto flopped over so that he was laying on his back. Sasuke was smirking down at him, but still offered a hand to help him get up. "Not bad," Sasuke said as he helped pull Naruto to his feet. "At least until you tripped and faceplanted."

"Yeah, yeah," Naruro grumbled, trying to dust the dirt off the front of his clothes without any success. "You weren't terrible either, I guess."

Sasuke started shaking out his right hand, and Naruto noted with a hint of satisfaction that it was reddened. "That wall really sucked to punch, by the way."

"That's kinda the point," Naruto said cheekily. "I bet you're wishing you had my healing ability right now. If you did, you'd be good to go by the time we're in class tomorrow!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and put his hand in his pocket. "I'll just go to the hospital and tell them I accidentally punched a wall too hard when training."

"Well, I guess that isn't technically a lie." Naruto looked down at his own hands, both slightly burnt from trying to grab Sasuke and getting electrocuted. Or they had been slightly burnt, but the pain had already more or less gone away and only the blackened marks gave away what happened. "Still," he said, wiping his hands off on the sides of his pants, "I bet they're getting pretty tired of you showing up and asking to be healed."

"Well, not all of us can be freak Senju who heal from everything freakishly fast," Sasuke retorted. "I still don't get how that even works."

Naruto shrugged. They'd started sparring on a fairly regular basis a little over a year ago, a few months after they'd mastered their first two jutsu, and quickly learned that Naruto healed from pretty much every injury without the need for a hospital. It was probably a product of Mokuton since the Shodai was apparently known for healing too, but they never actually figured out why it happened. "I'm just happy it does," Naruto admitted.

"When did you even figure out how to make the Wood Wall Jutsu usable in combat?" Sasuke asked, looking genuinely curious. "I thought you still had trouble doing anything with Mokuton because it took too long."

"Ah, well." Naruto put his hands behind his head. "I'm just that awesome!" Sasuke gave him a blank stare and he dropped his arms. "Fine, I figured it out after you left yesterday. But it only works 'cause it's so simple." He sighed dejectedly. "Still can't do anything too complicated with Mokuton without taking too long for it to be useful."

He wasn't really lying, but it still took some effort to make sure his face didn't give away that he was still holding something back. If he hadn't tripped…

"At least you're getting better," Sasuke said, seemingly accepting the explanation. "I doubt anyone in the academy other than me would be able to beat you."

Naruto grinned. "And it's only a matter of time before I beat you," he added. "Believe it!"

Sasuke scoffed. "Senju or not, you won't defeat me." He smirked. "But keep trying. It's good practice."

Naruto had to fight off a smirk he knew Sasuke would recognize; he didn't need to let Sasuke learn he had a new trick up his sleeve, at least not before he could use it in their next spar. To distract himself he simply punched Sasuke lightly in the shoulder. "Keep telling yourself that, bastard. It'll only make it all the better when I finally win."

Sasuke's eyes glinted with challenge. "I'll be disappointed if you can't back that up, idiot."

Sasuke strolled into class a good ten minutes before the school day started, sitting down in the seat next to the wall in the middle row.

One of the benefits of spending a lot of time with Naruto, as it turned out, had been that his classmates no longer tried incessantly to sit next to him if he sat next to the wall; they knew he'd only move to a different spot where Naruto would be able to sit next to him. Plenty of them still annoyed him at every given chance, a few even very obviously attempting to befriend Naruto to get closer to him, but he'd take what he could get. It was nice not having to rush into class at the last minute all the time.

That wasn't a sentiment Naruto shared, though. He'd lost count of how many times the idiot rushed in just before, or even shortly after, class started because he'd forgotten to set his alarm. It wasn't every day, and there were plenty where Naruto showed up at around the same time as Sasuke, but Sasuke had a feeling that today would be one of them.

He was proven right when the rest of the class started to trickle in, save for Naruto. The pink-haired girl, Sakura, ended up sitting to the right of where Naruto always sat, but Sasuke ignored her attempts at initiating conversation like he did everyone else's.

Except Naruto's, anyways. As soon as the blond walked into the room, less than a minute before class was due to start, Sasuke looked up from the taijutsu scroll he'd been studying to ask, "Did you forget to set your alarm again, idiot?"

Naruto sighed, briefly greeting Sakura, and sat down to Sasuke's right. "Nah, I slept through it." He melted into the chair, rubbing at one of his eyes. "I stayed up late doing my laundry to get all that dirt out of my favorite hoodie." He glanced at Sasuke's bandaged right hand. "Your hand okay?"

"Hn." Sasuke made grabbing movements with his hand. "It's fine. The bandages are just-"

"Alright, everyone!" Iruka interrupted. "Class is starting, quiet down." When everyone did, Iruka continued, "I'll be handing back your end-of-the-year tests today. The first page is the written portion you handed in, the second details your performance during the taijutsu portion, and the third details your performance during the ninjutsu portion. Any questions?" Only one hand raised. "Yes, Sakura?"

"Will you release the top scorers of each part like usual?" Sakura asked.

Iruka nodded, an amused smile on his face. "Of course."

"Why does she even ask," Kiba grumbled from behind Sasuke. "Everyone knows she'll get the top score of the written and Sasuke will get the other two."

If Iruka heard Kiba's grumbling, he didn't acknowledge it. He walked over to the board, writing down written, ninjutsu, and taijutsu, each with a line underneath. To no one's surprise, he wrote Sakura's name under written and Sasuke's under taijutsu. Before he wrote down the top scorer for ninjutsu, he glanced back at the class and Sasuke saw his eyes fall on the spot to his right.

Sasuke was one of few people who weren't surprised when he wrote down Naruto Uzumaki under ninjutsu.

"Woohoo!" Naruto cheered, voice much louder than the hushed shock that filled the rest of the class. He turned to Sasuke, tiredness from just before replaced entirely by excitement. "Told ya I'd get the highest score this time!"

"I still beat you in taijutsu," Sasuke pointed out.

"Yeah, well I already knew that!"

"And I'll catch up to you as soon as I develop my Sharingan," Sasuke added. "I'll make sure to copy every jutsu I come across."

Naruto smirked. "Not-"

"Alright, everyone, quiet down!" Iruka interrupted again, before Naruto could say something that'd surely be cryptic but still stupid. "Congratulations to our top scorers! And before anyone asks, there was no interference. I'll be handing your tests back now."

When Naruto and Sasuke got theirs back, Sasuke looked through his while half the room seemed to want to get a glimpse at Naruto's.

Sasuke got a 98/100 on the written portion, only missing points on a math problem. He was okay with that, though he was kind of ticked off about his stupid mistake; he was good at math, it was usually history that he missed a point or two on. He just didn't see the same value in learning history as he did math, since there was little chance of it helping him get stronger, and he only really bothered with it to stay at the top of the class overall.

The taijutsu portion was decided by individual matches between the students where Iruka or Mizuki judged performance. If you lost a match against someone before you had the chance to show your ability, you were given another chance against a different student. Sasuke's had been against Naruto, and it'd been by far the longest match of all the class; while Sasuke was still definitely better, Naruto had improved a lot since they started sparring regularly. If he'd been against anyone else, he likely could have won the match.

Ninjutsu had been about demonstrating proficiency in the academy three and any more jutsu you happened to know. Kids with clan techniques had a leg-up on it, and Sasuke usually won on his Great Fireball Jutsu alone; the first time he'd ever done it, the teachers had been practically blown away by the surprise. It'd be difficult for a genin to use, much more so for an academy student. This time he'd demonstrated his Thunderclap Arrow Jutsu alongside his Great Fireball Jutsu, the latter significantly larger than past years, which would have easily won him the top spot if his class didn't have Naruto.

Naruto had, of course, gone overboard for the test. Since he still couldn't perform the Clone Jutsu, something Sasuke sometimes struggled with because of his own reserves, even if he'd never admit it, Naruto had decided to instead show the Water Clone Jutsu for that requirement. Because the testing area didn't have water and Naruto didn't think to ask for some, he'd also demonstrated his ability to create Suiton chakra in his stomach to use for jutsu. And if that wasn't enough, he also showed the Water Bullet and Hiding Like a Mole jutsus. Thankfully, the idiot had at least remembered not to show off his third nature.

Sasuke could have performed more jutsu than what he showed off, but so could Naruto. And Sasuke didn't doubt that even if all their jutsu were considered, Naruto still would have been the top scorer. It stung to admit it, but Naruto's awakened bloodline gave him the edge in ninjutsu. An edge Sasuke would remove when he finally awakened his own bloodline.

Looking over at Naruto's test, Sasuke wasn't surprised to learn he'd been second in the class for taijutsu. Even though he'd lost the match, he and Sasuke had gone back and forth for minutes longer than any of the other students. The fact that they both knew how the other fought so well definitely helped, but even without that Naruro had improved significantly; with the Senju being the Uchiha's oldest enemy, the clan archives had detailed records of what their taijutsu had been like. When Sasuke found it, he barely even thought about it before giving it to Naruto.

The stronger Naruto got, the stronger Sasuke's training opponent was, after all.

He was surprised to see what Naruto got for the written portion, though: an 83/100. It wasn't the best, Sasuke was sure other students would have gotten 90s, but it was a lot better than previous years where he barely scraped by with a passing grade.

"Maybe you aren't a total idiot," Sasuke commented.

Naruto gave him a short glare, but the effect was broken by the obviously proud look on his face. He'd actually studied, if only after Sasuke remarked about the Hokage needing to have a brain. The 83 was high enough he was also most likely one of the top students in the class overall, when considered alongside his other two placements, and Sasuke knew how much he loved any sign of his improvement.

"Woah!" Kiba exclaimed. "Naruto actually passed on the written! I thought you were an idiot?"

Naruto grinned cockily back at him. "And I got second on taijutsu, dog-breath! What'd you get?"

Kiba frowned down at his paper. "Fourth…" He looked around the room suspiciously. "Hey! Who got third?" Nobody responded. "Come on! I just wanna know who beat me!"

A hand in the back middle slowly raised. "Uh, it was me, Kiba," Hinata said meekly.

"Oh." Kiba calmed down quickly. "Uh, I should've guessed that. Sorry!"

"It's… okay."

"Hey, nice job Hinata!" Naruto praised, grinning in her direction. "We should totally spar some day!"

"U-uh." Hinata went red in the face. "I-if you want!"

Naruto grinned at her for another few seconds before turning back to Sasuke. Sasuke saw her practically deflate into her chair when he did. "I don't think she likes me very much," Naruto whispered. "She's always like twice as stuttery when she talks to me."

Sasuke stared blankly at him for a few seconds before rolling his eyes. "You really are an idiot."

"Hey! What was that for?" Naruto slapped Sasuke's bandaged hand, though it really was healed enough that it just felt like a normal slap. "I thought you just said I wasn't an idiot?"

"I said you weren't a total idiot." Sasuke channeled a little Raiton chakra into his hand and Naruto yanked his back at the small shock. "That doesn't discount you from being an idiot."

"Have I ever mentioned how much I hate you?"

"A few times, are you forgetting things too?"

"I am so going to kick your-"

"Boys!" Iruka scolded. "Quiet down." Naruto and Sasuke glared at each other for a few more seconds before turning to look at the teacher. "Alright. Nice job on the tests everyone, I'm impressed. Now," he erased the names on the board and wrote down Shinobi Mission Rankings, "today's lesson will be on the different ranks of missions. There are D-ranks, C-ranks, B-ranks, A-ranks, and S-ranks. Most shinobi will never-"

Naruto's head thunked against the desk. Some things never changed.

Sasuke stood opposite of Naruto in the forest clearing, hand raised in the Seal of Confrontation.

Their last spar had only been a day ago and while they'd usually wait another week before fighting all-out again, Naruto had been anxious to get a second shot. And Sasuke, though he didn't want to admit it, hadn't been able to get their last one out of his mind. Naruto had been doing something before he tripped and fell, and Sasuke was determined to learn what it was.

A single leaf hit the ground and Sasuke charged forward, aiming to engage Naruto in a taijutsu bout before Naruto could start throwing around jutsu. But Naruto ran through a set of seals before he could cross the distance between them and Sasuke barely had time to divert his punch before he could hurt his hand a second time by hitting the block of wood Naruto replaced himself with.

The hair on the back of his neck stood up and Sasuke ducked low, just in time for a punch to fly over his head. He quickly righted himself, rolling back onto his feet, and turned around just in time to divert a second punch from Naruto. Even with the blow only glancing against his arm, he could tell something was off; it lacked the usual power Naruto hit with.

Before Naruto could try to throw another punch, Sasuke pulled out a kunai and struck Naruto in the chest with it. Unsurprisingly, the clone turned back into water that fell to the ground. Sasuke spun around again just in time to deflect a kunai from somewhere high up, but he didn't have time to try and pinpoint where it came from before he heard, "Suiton: Water Bullet!"

Sasuke barely managed to dodge the stream of water that came from a different direction than the kunai. If there was one thing the idiot was good at during their spars, even before he started learning the Senju taijutsu, it was being unpredictable. Sasuke had to acknowledge the fact that Naruto was good at coming up with plans on the fly.

He ran through a set of hand seals at top speed, the familiar sensation of Katon chakra gathering in his lungs until he let it loose in a massive fireball in the direction the water had come from. He caught a glimpse of blond hair just before he let it loose, but when the fireball finished it became clear Naruto had managed to form another wood wall before it could reach him.

The wall receded into the ground in the next moment, revealing Naruto performing another set of hand seals. "Doton: Earthwave!" he shouted, slamming his hands against the ground.

Sasuke jumped away before the wave racing through the ground could hit him, racing through even more hand seals when he landed. "Raiton: Lightning Ball!"

As the six lightning balls shot towards Naruto, Sasuke saw him run through five seals in an order he hadn't seen before. "Mokuton: Wooden Bastard Shield!"

Much to Sasuke's annoyance, the lightning balls slammed into a wooden copy of himself. Of course Naruto turned that stupid trick into a genuine jutsu. Sasuke was so going to end the fight with a punch to that idiot's nose.

"How d'ya like that?" Naruto asked cheekily. "You have no idea how long it took to-"

"Katon: Phoenix Sage Fire Jutsu!" Sasuke spit out two smaller fireballs that flew straight towards the wooden replica of him, but at the last second they swerved around to reach Naruto. Naruto's eyes went wide and he jumped away, but one of them still brushed against and burnt his side. "You talk too much!"

If the fresh burn bothered Naruto, he didn't show it. "Yeah, whatever!" he shouted, hands forming the tiger seal. "Suiton: Water Clone Jutsu!"

The plants around Naruto dried out as he used its water to form five clones; the connection his kekkei genkai gave him to nature apparently came with the added bonus of being able to easily draw water from it, though he always made sure to bring the dead plants back to life when they were done sparring. The five clones all charged at Sasuke, but the original stayed back and started running through more hand seals.

Whatever the idiot had planned, Sasuke knew it couldn't be good for him. He ignored the clones, they each only had a tenth of Naruto's power anyways, and dashed forward, throwing a kunai at Naruto to break up his concentration. It worked, though one of the clones managed to snag Sasuke's arm with their own kunai and stop him from pressing the original into a taijutsu match.

Scowling, Sasuke used four hand seals and channeled Katon chakra into his hands. "Katon: Flame Whirlwind!" he shouted, a whirlwind of fire erupting from his hands and surrounding his body. He directed it at the clones, the flames shooting the five clones into the air.

If the targets were anything but clones, the Flame Whirlwind would have burnt them to ashes. Fortunately for them, they were water clones; the fire jutsu was powerful enough to dispel them, but the water that created them had the side effect of putting out the flames when they fell apart. Still, it did what Sasuke wanted it to by getting rid of the extra obstacles. He smirked, returning his attention to the original-

And realized he'd made a mistake by obscuring his own vision with the Flame Whirlwind.

Naruto finished off the string of seals Sasuke had interrupted before with the snake seal, slamming his hands against the ground when he was done. "Mokuton: Birth of the Forest!"

Naruto's distinctive chakra permeated the clearing, the intensity unlike anything Sasuke had felt from him in any of their spars. Or even outside of their spars when he was healing the clearing with his chakra. It was almost suffocating, except for the fact that the feeling could only be described as peaceful. Natural. He was so caught off guard by the sensation that he almost missed the way the ground started to shake.

Seconds later, trees erupted from the ground all over the clearing. Sasuke could only stare in wonder as the once-mostly open space was crowded by more trees than he could count, one even sprouting from the ground right next to him and throwing him back into another brand new tree.

The pain, thankfully, shocked him out of his stupor, and he forced himself to look away from the trees and search for Naruto. But the clearing was too crowded now and Naruto could've hidden anywhere while Sasuke was distracted. He brought out another kunai for protection, rising to his feet and looking all around him. His heart pounded in his chest as he tried to search for his opponent.

He would not lose to Naruto. He refused.

"You won't win if you just hide!" Sasuke shouted, projecting confidence he didn't really feel. "Fight-"

Something hard hit him on his back, knocking him forward. He managed to roll back onto his feet, kunai in hand, and prepared to attack Naruto, but the only thing there was a tree. The hair rose on the back of his neck again and he managed to jump away and spin around just in time for the tree he'd put his back to to move, a branch reaching down to swipe at where he'd just been.

Could Naruto control the trees?

Laughter came from above and Naruto jumped down a few meters in front of Sasuke. "Pretty cool new trick, ri-"

Sasuke didn't let him finish, racing through hand seals. "Raiton: Lightning Ball!" he shouted, sending four of them directly at Naruto.

Only for Naruto to melt into water.

Shit.

Sasuke spun around just in time to block a punch from Naruto, one he immediately realized was the real Naruto when he felt the sheer power packed into the punch. Another mistake. He knew better than to block a punch from Naruto, and he knew he'd be feeling the pain in his arm for the remainder of the fight.

He jumped back, racing through the seals for the Great Fireball Jutsu, but he was forced to abort the attempt when Naruto just grinned and held up the snake seal. "Mokuton: Swaying Trees!"

Sasuke whipped around in the air just in time to block a tree branch, injuring his arm even worse and sending him crashing into the ground. He frantically looked around for Naruto when he landed, spotting the blond meters away once again forming the snake seal.

Was Sasuke actually about to lose?

No, he wouldn't. Not even to the legendary Mokuton. What would that man think if Sasuke lost here? He'd call Sasuke weak, would say Sasuke's hatred still wasn't enough. Sasuke couldn't lose, not if he was ever going to grow strong enough to avenge his clan. He had to win. Had to beat Naruto so he could one day beat him.

The world came into focus like never before, Sasuke's eyesight sharpening until he could see every detail of Naruto's stupid face. He could see the chakra in Naruto's body, and the same chakra in all of the trees around him. Naruto almost seemed to be moving in slow motion as Sasuke scrambled to his feet, just in time to dodge the chakra-filled roots that had been about to bind him to the ground.

Did he just-

No, no time to think about that now. He couldn't waste time. Naruto was moving in slow motion, but so was Sasuke's body. He wasn't used to his perceptions being so fast. He could better react to anything thrown at him, but he couldn't suddenly escape just because the world slowed down around him.

He needed a plan.

The trees all around him were filled with Naruto's chakra; that had to be how he was controlling them with just the snake seal. As long as Sasuke was surrounded by the trees Naruto created, he'd have to deal with attacks from all directions. And even if those attacks were in slow motion, he'd still be overwhelmed if there were too many of them.

Speeding through the hand seals, Sasuke shot a Thunderbolt Arrow at Naruto. He didn't wait to see if it hit, bolting away at top speed. If Naruto couldn't see him, he couldn't-

Sasuke barely managed to jump over a root that sprung up out of nowhere and cursed. Naruto couldn't see him, but he could sense him. Still, Sasuke kept running, his sped up perceptions allowing him to dodge any obstacle Naruto put in his path. His best option was to get away from Naruto's trees, and with his new ability to see chakra he'd know where Naruto's trees stopped and the natural forest began.

"Hey, bastard, I thought you told me to fight!" Naruto shouted from somewhere behind him.

Sasuke ignored him. It'd be stupid to continue trying to fight Naruto in his own terrain and Sasuke wouldn't let himself be tricked into doing so. When he finally caught sight of a tree in the distance that didn't have Naruto's chakra infused into it, he allowed himself a smirk; he was nearing the end of Naruto's surprisingly large forest. As long as he made it there-

Hands reached up from the ground and grabbed at his feet. He managed to kick out of the hold before he could be pulled underground, but the grab still tripped him up. Even though he managed to roll forward and land back on his feet, the attack still destroyed his getaway plan. Shit. He'd been paying too much attention to the Mokuton and forgot about the natures it was made of.

Sasuke was forced to turn around and face Naruto, just in time to duck under a punch that he was sure would have finished breaking his arm if he'd tried to block it. Sasuke smirked, reveling in his enhanced perceptions as he dodged and diverted all of Naruto's attacks with more ease than ever before.

Maybe he was too hasty to try and run away. He was still the better taijutsu fighter, and he could win as long as he stopped Naruto from-

Something wrapped around his feet. He still managed to duck under the punch Naruto sent flying his way, but then he felt whatever it was that wrapped around his feet pull them out from under him.

When his eyes landed on the second Naruto, with a tenth of the original's chakra and hands in the snake seal, Sasuke knew he'd lost. It was all he could do to put his hands out to stop himself from getting a face full of grass.

Roots wrapped around his body and a cheerful voice declared, "I win!"

Sasuke squeezed his hands into fists against the ground. "Let me up."

The roots receded into the ground. A hand appeared in front of Sasuke's face, but Sasuke ignored it… only for his arm to give out under him when he put too much pressure on it. He rolled over onto his back to get the grass out of his face, panting and staring up at the canopy of leaves above.

"Your arm okay?" Naruto asked, sitting down beside him. He was breathing pretty harshly too, Sasuke noted. "I hit you hard."

"Hn." Sasuke's arm hurt like hell, but he wouldn't admit it. "I shouldn't have blocked."

Naruto grinned. "My plan worked! I figured you might assume I was another water clone and decide it was fine to block."

It was a good plan, and Sasuke genuinely hated to admit it. He glared at Naruto, opening his mouth to come up with an insult-

"Hey, you finally got your Sharingan!" Naruto exclaimed. "I thought your eyes looked red, but I was too focused on the fact that you were suddenly dodging all my attacks to get a good look at them. But you got it!"

So Sasuke had awakened it.

Awakening his Sharingan was all he'd wanted for as long as he could remember. At first, he'd wanted it so that he could prove to his father that he was as much of a prodigy as him. After that night, he'd grown to need it just so he could finally grow powerful enough to defeat him. And then, though he would never admit it aloud, he'd grown to want it so that Naruto wouldn't be the only one with a legendary kekkei genkai.

He'd always thought developing Sharingan would be the largest step towards his goals, that it would make him stronger than ever before.

But he lost to Naruto.

He could hear Itachi's voice in his ear. Weak. Pathetic. Even with the eyes of the Uchiha, you're nothing but a failure. He squeezed his eyes shut, cutting off the flow of chakra to his eyes as if that would get rid of the voice. Little brother, you will never be strong enough. If he couldn't even defeat Naruto-

"You good?" Naruto asked, poking Sasuke's uninjured right arm. Sasuke opened his eyes and shot the blond a weak glare. "Hey, your eyes are back to normal! What gives?"

"I turned it off."

Naruto cocked his head to the side. "You can do that? I thought dojutsu were on all the time. Like Hinata and her eyes!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "The Hyuga just have violet eyes, they don't constantly have the Byakugan on." He channeled the chakra back into his eyes, Naruto's features sharpening again. "Of course I can turn it off and on."

He said that, but he was a little relieved to see that he could reactivate it. He'd feared, for a brief second, that he wouldn't remember how to, or that the activation would be a one time thing.

"Huh, cool," Naruto said. "I was kinda worried I'd have to look at those weird red eyes all the time."

Sasuke smirked. "You find them unsettling?"

Clearly, Naruto noticed his error, if the look on his face was any indication. "No, of course not!" he hastily corrected. "Those red eyes with the weird dots are totally normal and not weird!"

Sasuke stared him in the eyes until Naruto's gaze temporarily flickered away. "Can't handle the sight of the Sharingan?" Sasuke remarked.

"Ugh, you're gonna do that all the time, aren't you," Naruto grumbled. Sasuke just continued smirking… until Naruto raised the snake seal and he got poked by a branch. "Well, two can play the kekkei genkai game!"

Sasuke's smirk fell at the uncomfortable reminder of his loss. Deactivating his Sharingan again, he stared up at the leaves above. Another reminder of his loss, and of Naruto's surprising power; the entire clearing they'd been using for training for a year was now just as filled with trees as the rest of the forest. He'd felt Naruto's chakra just before it happened, and even the memory of the sensation had shock racing through his system.

He found it hard to believe the kid who'd been the dead last of the class just over a year ago had that much power inside.

Over the past year he and Naruto had sparred a lot. It'd been one sided at first, they'd been learning jutsu at about the same rate and Sasuke had a leg up from the start, but at some point Sasuke had actually begun to struggle for his victories. He'd been glad for that; the more work he put into it, the more he'd improve. But he'd never entertained the idea of losing.

Was Naruto growing at a faster rate than him?

Sasuke squeezed his hands into fists again, glaring up at the canopy of leaves like he could burn them away with just his ire. He'd awakened his Sharingan, but he still lost to the power of Mokuton. Was it just better? Was that why Naruto could beat him?

No, Sasuke thought, looking at Naruto again, who was staring around the new forest with a pleased smile on his face.

It wasn't that Mokuton was better, or at least not just that. Sasuke had seen the effort Naruto put into learning it over the past year. Even without anything to learn from, he'd progressed enough to create and control an entire forest. He was an idiot, but Sasuke couldn't deny his skill in learning ninjutsu. Creating them, even.

Sasuke didn't lose to Mokuton, he lost to Naruto Uzumaki. The thought stung, but at the same time… there was a thrill in the thought of fighting someone who could beat him. He'd been the uncontested best in his class for as long as he could remember; even Naruto challenging him never made him consider otherwise. But now…

Sasuke sat up, ignoring the flare of pain in his arm, and stared at Naruto until Naruto met his gaze. "You may have won this time, but don't think it'll get any easier to do it again," he warned. "Now that I have my Sharingan, you'll have to work even harder if you want to keep up."

Naruto's eyes glinted with challenge. "I guess I'll just have to push my Mokuton even harder, then." He pushed himself to his feet, then once again offered a hand to Sasuke. "Cmon, you probably need to get to the hospital for that arm."

Sasuke sighed and accepted the offered hand. "Yeah, probably," he agreed, cradling his injured arm once he stood up. "You might wanna get that burn checked out, too."

Naruto looked down at his right side like he'd forgotten the injury was even there. There was a hole the size of the fireball Sasuke shot at him burnt into his jacket, and the skin underneath was… Sasuke frowned. It was barely reddened, almost like a sunburn. The only signs he'd even been burned by fire were the charred edges of the hole in the hoodie.

"Nah, I'm fine," Naruto said, brushing away some ash. "But you totally destroyed my hoodie!" He groaned, pulling on the charred edges. "This was my favorite one!"

"You just healed from a fire jutsu burn in the time it took for our spar to finish," Sasuke said drily, hiding his surprise. Naruto really did have freakish healing. "Most people wouldn't be complaining."

"But this was my favorite!"

Sasuke tiredly rubbed his face with his uninjured arm. "You're such an idiot," he muttered, turning around to make his way back to the village. "If you're uninjured, then you should take the time to fix this clearing so we don't have to find a new one."

"Wait, what?" When Sasuke just kept walking away, Naruto groaned. Sasuke smirked when the last thing that reached his ears was, "This is gonna be such a pain."

Author's Note:

thank you again for all the follows, favorites, and reviews!

if there are any weird formatting mistakes when i post this, i'll try to fix them as soon as possible. FFN is doing something weird and keeps making all the text centered for some reason? i've already had to fix that twice while writing this note and it's irritating me a lot when i just want to post

anyways, woohoo timeskip! there will be a couple more until we get to the kids graduating, so Naruto and Sasuke won't be in the academy forever. i'm no longer on break between semesters so i don't have as much time anymore, but at the time of me writing this note i'm in the middle of writing their first C-rank (which i'm pretty excited for)

there's a little bit i'm gonna go ahead and say about Naruto and Sasuke's fights in this chapter:

a) Naruto and Sasuke aren't really that strong yet. they'd definitely beat any of their classmates, and are more than strong enough to graduate early (though they won't, because it'd prob be needlessly risky for the last Uchiha and the village's jinchuriki to graduate early), but i consider them to be like really flashy genin. skill wise, they're only really used to using their full range of abilities against each other, so they'd be at a bit of a disadvantage against anyone with more experience

b) Sasuke has issues. he's my favorite character alongside Naruto, but he has the weirdest superiority/inferiority complex sometimes (bc Itachi went wayyy overboard on the whole "traumatize my little brother" plan lmao). so here he is having is "is Naruto stronger than me?" moment, only without Orochimaru's influence or an encounter with Itachi to send him completely over the edge. this is the first match he's lost to Naruto bc Sasuke had a much higher starting point when they started training w each other, but now they're more or less equals

i rambled a lot here, but i just really like to ramble about my thoughts sometimes.

also, anyone who's PMed me, FFN is so weird with private messaging. i get emails about PMs, but they don't actually show up in my messages like 9/10 times? i'll try and respond eventually when FFN actually lets me

again, thank you to everyone who's reading this!