A Battle Between Men

"Ring, ring, ring..."

The dismissal bell rang.

"Well, that's all for today's lessons. Class dismissed. See you this afternoon." Iruka gathered the books from the lectern and spoke to the students below.

"Wow, school's out..."

"Finally, I can go eat. I'm starving..."

"All you know is eating, eating, eating. I'm telling you, I know a place with several bug nests. Let's go play with bugs..."

As soon as Iruka left the classroom, the class erupted into chatter.

"Sasuke, let's go home together..." Sakura Haruno eagerly approached Sasuke and said.

"No."

Sasuke rejected her outright.

Sakura Haruno: (╰_╯)#

Ignoring the angry Sakura Haruno, Sasuke packed his bag, stood up, glanced at Naruto in the back row, and left the classroom first.

As Naruto packed his bag, he saw fighting spirit in Sasuke's eyes.

A blazing fighting spirit.

He understood what those eyes meant as well: today, this battle was unavoidable.

Just as I wished.

Naruto grew excited, once again imagining himself knocking Sasuke to the ground, leaving Sasuke bruised and battered as he said, "Naruto-kun, can I be your friend?"

He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he bumped into a soft body in the aisle. Looking up, he saw a girl rolling her eyes at him. Startled, Naruto hurriedly said, "Sorry."

Hinata Hyuga leaned against the desk, looking at Naruto before her. She wanted to open her mouth and say it was all right, but she was so nervous that she could not move at all. She could only keep silently staring at Naruto.

Naruto felt a little creeped out as the girl named Hinata Hyuga kept staring at him. He apologized again, then hurried away.

Only after Naruto had left the classroom did Hinata Hyuga let out a breath. Her face suddenly turned red like a little apple as she murmured, "Naruto-kun, he talked to me!"

But when she thought of how she had been unable to even say "It's all right," she lowered her head in dejection, standing there like a quail.

After leaving the classroom, Naruto also breathed a sigh of relief inwardly. That girl just now had been terrifying. He had only bumped into her, and he had already apologized. Did she really need to keep rolling her eyes at him?

The moment he reached the school gate, Naruto saw Sasuke ahead of him in blue clothes, walking very slowly as if waiting for him.

Naruto quickly caught up. The two walked side by side without turning to look at each other, merely keeping pace. The air itself seemed thick with fighting spirit.

After holding it in for three days, Sasuke had trained hard with his brother Itachi, greatly improving his speed. Now that his training had paid off, it was time to make Naruto pay for the humiliation of the last two times.

With a breath held in his chest, Sasuke's fighting spirit rose.

Sensing Sasuke's fighting spirit, Naruto's own fighting spirit surged forth in response, matching Sasuke's evenly.

If describing this scene through fighting spirit sounded too hollow and exaggerated, then picture them glaring cross-eyed at one another and circling in place. That would convey the intense aura of battle between them.

In perfect step, the two headed toward their old spot.

As they walked, they suddenly sensed someone following them from behind.

"To the woods," Sasuke said quietly.

Of course, he was speaking to Naruto. Naruto nodded. He had also noticed someone tailing them from a distance ever since they had left the school.

Neither of them wanted a third party present for this battle between them.

So the two slipped into the woods. The two people following them instantly lost sight of Sasuke and Naruto, forcing them to stop where they were and look at each other.

"Strange. Since when did Sasuke get along so well with Naruto? They're even leaving school together?" Sakura Haruno asked quietly.

"That big guy Naruto has always been weird. Look, he never makes friends with anyone at school, but now he's sneaking off after school with Sasuke, and they're even going into the woods together?" Ino Yamanaka was equally baffled.

"Naruto's grades are so bad. He isn't teaching Sasuke to do bad things, is he?"

The same thought flashed through Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka's minds. They exchanged a look and received the same message from each other's eyes.

That was—

They needed to set aside their hostility and unite.

They had to save Sasuke. They could not let someone with good grades and a handsome face like Sasuke ruin his life with one misstep.

In the woods, Naruto and Sasuke walked one behind the other, then stopped at the same time. Sasuke turned around and said seriously, "Naruto Uzumaki, this time, I'll definitely defeat you."

Naruto faced him squarely as well. "Sasuke Uchiha, you're the first step on my path to making friends. I won't lose. I'll keep winning, because dreams must never fail."

At that moment—

Their fighting spirits reached their peak.

"Sasuke, will you be my friend?" Naruto once again spoke what was in his heart.

"Hmph. Beat me first, then we'll talk." After his failures in the previous two fights, Sasuke had worked out a way to deal with Naruto and strengthened his speed training under his brother Itachi's guidance.

Besides, before setting out today, Itachi had formulated a battle strategy specifically around Naruto's traits.

If Naruto still defeated him after all that, then what was the harm in agreeing to become Naruto's friend?

But I won't admit defeat so easily.

With that thought, Sasuke leaped backward. With a whoosh, he landed in a tree and said, "Come on, Naruto. Let me see what you can really do besides sneak attacks."

"All right. Then I'll let Sasuke see what I'm really capable of."

The moment he finished speaking, Naruto activated Indestructible Body. A series of crackles erupted from his body, followed by the sound of tearing cloth. His muscles rapidly swelled, bursting his shirt apart and scattering the scraps onto the ground.

"This is..." Up in the tree, Sasuke's pupils contracted as he cried out inwardly.

Below, Naruto stood bare-chested, his shirt shredded, wearing only pants. His entire body was packed with bulging muscles and protruding tendons. He licked his lips and said, "Let's begin our friendly spar."

With that, he stomped his right foot into the ground. Dirt and stones flew as a deep crater formed beneath his foot. Using that force, Naruto charged toward the tree Sasuke stood on.

"Thousand Jin Embrace!"

With a loud roar, Naruto wrapped his arms around the tree beneath Sasuke's feet. Sasuke immediately lost his footing, and the next instant, Naruto snapped the entire tree in half with his embrace.

"Boom... boom..."

The tree crashed to the ground with a tremendous roar.

Sasuke had already leaped away, landing in another tree.

After breaking one tree, Naruto looked up at Sasuke, who had escaped in time, grinned, and charged toward him again.

"Thousand Jin Embrace!"

The tree beneath Sasuke's feet was snapped apart by Naruto once more.

Sasuke was already shocked by Naruto's monstrous strength, but his lips curled in disdain. Hmph, what could this big brute do to me with that?

"Boom..."

"Boom..."