You're Pretty Good

"The match begins!"

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Like most battles between ninja, Sakura began with a probing shuriken attack.

Three shuriken flew toward Zaku in a triangular formation.

At the same time, Sakura charged forward and formed hand seals. With two pops, two clones appeared to her left and right.

Zaku shifted aside to evade the three shuriken, narrowing his eyes slightly. That seal... was just an ordinary Clone Technique, wasn't it?

In the blink of an eye.

Just as Zaku avoided the shuriken, Sakura gathered Chakra in her feet. Bang! Her speed suddenly surged, and like a fish leaping from the water, she shot straight in front of him.

"Hmph..."

At the end of the day, she was just a female ninja. She actually came at him with her fists... What could those soft, weak fists do besides scratch an itch?

Zaku wore a cold, disdainful expression. Faced with Sakura's fist, he had no intention of dodging. Or rather, if he had to dodge around against a female ninja's fists, what kind of man would that make him?

As Sakura's fist approached, Zaku raised his arm to block it.

Elsewhere, Tsunade raised a brow slightly and thought, This method of using precise Chakra control to increase the force of a punch... The technique is crude beyond belief, but... was this little girl doing it instinctively?

That was rather interesting. The little girl the old man had mentioned... Sakura Haruno.

"That girl... hahaha..." Naruto could not help laughing when he recalled the terror of being dominated by iron fists, leaving Hinata beside him utterly confused.

A punch landed.

An unexpected, piercing pain shot through his arm and into his nerves. Zaku's pupils widened slightly... Bang! He flew backward like a kite with its string cut, rolling a long way across the ground.

Brother Sakura... no, Sakura lifted her head slightly, narrowed her eyes, and smiled. "That's the price of looking down on women."

Ino covered her forehead in the stands and sighed. "That forehead girl is hopelessly violent!"

"Go, Sakura! Show him what you—" Kiba shouted from the stands, but the masked Shino calmly reminded him, "I advise you not to continue, Kiba. If you want to know why..." He seemed to recall an unpleasant memory, his shoulders trembling once before he fell silent.

Akamaru trembled atop Kiba's head. It remembered the terrifying silhouette of that female demon beneath the setting sun.

Sasuke, Sasuke.

My longing for you all this time has been the driving force that made me desperately improve... Sakura smacked her right fist into her left palm, her expression resolute.

"Tch, that Zaku... can he even handle this?" Sound Ninja Kin curled her lips in the stands. At the same time, she felt a faint sense of satisfaction. As a female ninja herself, she was often mocked by the arrogant Zaku.

That woman... Bandaged Sound Ninja Dosu watched the battle quietly.

Zaku climbed to his feet and raised his head. The fury in his eyes was practically bursting forth.

What a humiliation. What a humiliation!

He raised his left palm—

"Air Cutter!"

Damn woman, I'm getting serious now!

A fierce blast of air rushed toward Sakura. Caught off guard, she was directly struck by the invisible shockwave. She cried out in pain and rolled backward, as though a meteor had smashed into her chest and abdomen. Her internal organs churned violently, while her skin felt as if it were being torn apart.

Sakura lay prone on the ground, still unable to catch her breath when the sound of something slicing through the air came from behind her head!

Startled, Sakura rolled to the side.

Thunk! Thunk! Two incredibly sharp shuriken embedded themselves in the ground where Sakura had just been.

A hand viciously grabbed Sakura's long pink hair from behind. Standing behind her, Zaku pulled hard.

Sakura winced in pain. The agony shooting through her scalp forced tears from her eyes, and her body involuntarily followed the force of Zaku's pull as she was dragged up onto her knees.

Zaku planted a foot on the slender back of that damned woman, licked his lips, and revealed a cruel, sinister smile. "This is what happens when a bitch like you overestimates herself and tries to resist a man..."

The hand clutching her hair tightened viciously, and Sakura's body trembled from the intense pain.

"That brat..." Tsunade's brows and lips twitched at once. Her fingers tapped restlessly against her arm. Even at her age, Zaku's arrogant words still made her furious.

His other hand aimed at the back of Sakura's head as Chakra gathered in the wind hole in his palm.

But at that moment, Sakura gripped a kunai and swiftly reached behind her head...

"Forehead girl..." Ino could not help covering her mouth, her eyes wide with utter shock.

I heard Sasuke likes girls with long hair.

Does that mean we'll be rivals in love from now on?

Ino-pig, Sasuke is mine. Don't even think about it!

Sigh, what should I do? I wasn't assigned to the same team as Sasuke...

But I won't give up, because I...

Slice.

Shattered strands of pink hair drifted through the air.

The determined gaze in Sakura's eyes never wavered.

Because I have never felt as strongly as I did at this moment... that Sasuke was watching me!

Sakura filled her legs with Chakra, aimed the kunai she had used to cut her hair behind herself, and kicked off with all her strength!

Slash—the sound of kunai piercing flesh.

Zaku screamed. Sakura's kunai had plunged deeply beneath his collarbone, wedged between bone and flesh. Waves of dizzying pain flooded his mind, making his vision go dark.

He staggered backward repeatedly, blood flowing without end.

"Don't underestimate Sakura too much." Kurenai Yuhi smiled faintly in the stands and silently thought, Sakura, show them the results of your hard work...

Without hesitation, Sakura did exactly what she had done at the start. With a flick of both hands, a row of shuriken flew toward Zaku.

At the same time as she threw the shuriken, she formed hand seals. Two clones charged forward from her left and right.

Likewise, she suddenly flooded her feet with Chakra and charged at Zaku at explosive speed.

"Damned woman! Don't get cocky!" Zaku was furious beyond measure. He yanked out the kunai lodged beneath his collarbone, endured the agonizing pain, and ignored the bleeding as he raised both hands with a savage expression. "Just die already! Great Air Cutter!!"

Sakura had already leapt in front of Zaku, just like before.

But...

Boom! Boom! Boom! Violent currents burst from the wind holes in Zaku's palms like a raging storm, striking Sakura at point-blank range!

"You think you can use the same trick twice!? Die!"

Zaku roared, veins bulging as he frantically drove his Chakra into the storm. Its range and power surged again, distorting even the view before him as dust flew throughout the arena.

After the storm passed, where was Sakura in front of Zaku? The Sakura before him had shockingly become Zaku himself!

"Hehehe..." The "Zaku" before him gave a sinister laugh as his face began to fracture and crumble.

Damn it! Genjutsu! When did she—!?

Zaku roared inwardly, frantically circulating the Chakra within his body as he tried to break the illusion directly.

But at that moment, Sakura charged in from another direction!

Her right fist was filled with power! Under the familiar control of her Chakra, it flowed through her muscles in a special way!

The flames in her eyes burned fiercely! Her fighting spirit was unwavering! Her resolve pressed forward without hesitation!

"This is the last punch, you bastard!!!"

Several jonin present nodded in approval. She had used the same tactics to numb her opponent, then secretly cast Genjutsu beneath the cover of her clones?

A domineering, straightforward punch smashed solidly into Zaku's face amid Sakura's furious roar!

The victor had been decided.

"Hah... hah... hah..."

Sakura kept her right fist hanging at her side, her knees weak as she panted in exhaustion. Yet her eyes were filled with joy. She could barely suppress the urge in her heart as she turned to look toward the person she thought about day and night—

Sasuke was impatiently pushing Naruto's hand away, apparently arguing about something, while Hinata carefully tried to mediate beside them.

He didn't see me...

The brightness in Sakura's emerald eyes immediately dimmed.

Feeling downcast, Sakura slowly climbed the stairs toward the second-floor stands.

After working so hard for so long, in the end...

"Sakura, right?"

She suddenly looked up. Hardly daring to believe it, Sakura stared blankly at Sasuke standing at the entrance to the second-floor stairs. As usual, his face was cold and stiff... but he was looking at her.

"Sasuke..." Sakura murmured.

Without caring how Sakura might react, Sasuke awkwardly said, "You're pretty good." Then he awkwardly turned and left again without the slightest hesitation, as if he had merely come to complete a task.

But that was enough. Truly... Sakura tried hard to stop her tears from spilling over, but her mouth broke into a foolish grin beyond her control.

"What's with you? Why did you make me go talk to that girl?" Sasuke returned to Hinata and Naruto, feeling annoyed and speechless. What was wrong with Naruto? Did he look like the kind of person who would do that?

At that moment, the electronic screen displayed the next match:

'Temari vs. Shino Aburame'