Your Eyebrows Are Too Thick

"Did you know each other before?" Naruto and Sasuke asked, a little puzzled, as they walked through the gate and looked at Nanfeng. This guy's social circle was truly strange. How did he even know someone like this?

"Yeah. They were injured before and went to the hospital for treatment. I took care of their wounds, and we got to know each other while chatting during their recovery." Nanfeng didn't deny it. After all, thanks to his temporary role as a Medical Ninja, he'd earned the goodwill of quite a few Konoha shinobi.

"Being able to use Medical Ninjutsu really is a great ability. It's a shame it demands such precise Chakra Control. Otherwise, I'd want to learn it too!" Sasuke said, looking at Nanfeng's arm with a hint of envy.

The only techniques an ordinary Medical Ninja could master were the Healing Technique and Chakra Scalpel. As for an ability on the level of the Mystical Palm Technique, even across the entire shinobi world, users were few and far between.

Sasuke had tried practicing with the Chakra Scalpel. Though his Sharingan could copy the technique with ease, he wasn't very good at controlling his chakra.

Among this year's students, the two with the best Chakra Control were Nanfeng and Sakura.

Unfortunately, with Nanfeng's arrival, the former heroine had become little more than a nameless background character. If he had time later, Nanfeng still planned to find an opportunity to send Sakura to Konoha Hospital.

After all, it didn't sit right with him to see her talent go to waste.

"But it's been so noisy here for a while now..." Sasuke sighed as he watched Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka argue beside him. He really couldn't understand it. Girls their age should be thinking about training, not romance all day. Wasn't that a hassle?

Uh-oh. Was Sasuke starting to turn into Shikamaru, too?

Watching the two girls carry on with no end in sight, Sasuke helplessly took out a pair of earplugs. If he couldn't hear them, at least he wouldn't be bothered for a while. He'd picked up that ostrich-like attitude over the past few years of training against Nanfeng.

That guy Nanfeng was incredibly strong, and his mouth was even harder to deal with than Naruto's. Naruto was just a little long-winded; every word from Nanfeng struck right at the heart.

"You're this weak, and you still want revenge? You can't even beat Naruto!"

"You've only been training for a little while, and you're already unable to move? The eighty-year-old granny who lives near my house is more agile than you!"

After enduring all that verbal abuse, Sasuke had reached the highest level of keeping a straight face and staying calm. But that state of mind was soon shattered by someone's sudden arrival!

"Hm? That guy's outfit is strange. I don't think I've ever really interacted with anyone like him at the Ninja Academy." Sensing movement nearby, Sasuke looked up and saw Naruto and Nanfeng staring, both wearing troubled expressions, at a goofy-looking guy dressed like a watermelon.

"Who's that?" Sasuke subtly nudged Nanfeng in the back with his elbow. He'd started paying more attention to socializing, too. As long as there wasn't any serious bad blood, he figured it was best to get acquainted.

"He was in the year above us. I've heard about him. He's the kind of guy who beat geniuses through hard work. But what he doesn't realize is that without a talent for Taijutsu, he'd never have been able to take this path in the first place," Nanfeng said with a shake of his head.

"Is that so? Then I know who he is." Sasuke shook his head, no longer interested.

Rock Lee couldn't use chakra well, so he had no choice but to train as a pure Taijutsu specialist. The fact that he could take part in the Chunin Ninja Exams showed just how strong he was now.

"So why's he suddenly coming over here? We don't have anything to do with each other, do we?" Naruto's expression turned a little strange as he watched Lee approach. But when he turned to Nanfeng, he saw that Nanfeng looked like he was enjoying a show.

"Nothing much. I'm guessing a great show is about to start. We should just sit back and watch." Nanfeng pulled Naruto over to sit beside him, watching Rock Lee's next move with interest.

That watermelon—no, Rock Lee—ignored everyone else and walked straight up to Sakura, who was standing beside Sasuke. He gave her a thumbs-up, flashed his trademark gleaming white teeth, and wore what he thought was a handsome smile.

"Sakura Haruno, please go out with me! I'll protect you with my life!" Rock Lee's words hit like a brutal combination—silencing everyone and scoring a critical hit!

Never mind everyone else; Sasuke, standing closest, nearly lost it. But his upbringing in a prominent clan told him he couldn't laugh out loud right now. Naruto and Nanfeng watched helplessly as Sasuke's face turned as red as a cooked lobster.

"No! Your eyebrows are way too thick!" Sakura shrieked, rejecting Lee's confession. But Rock Lee had no intention of giving up.

Of course he wouldn't give up so easily. Otherwise, he wouldn't have made it so far in his Taijutsu training. So he began striking various poses and blowing kisses at Sakura. The whole scene was simply too much to look at.

"I have to admit, those moves really are hard on the eyes... Hm? Naruto, why are you crying?" Nanfeng asked, rubbing his eyes as he looked at Naruto, who was sobbing.

"It's nothing. It just reminded me of the last time I cut onions. What I'm seeing now, with Lee's moves, feels pretty much the same..." Naruto said miserably, wiping the tears from his eyes.

After Sakura's repeated rejections, Lee finally accepted the cruel reality. But he quickly realized that the girl seemed to have someone she liked there—and that person happened to be standing not far from him.

"Hm? What's wrong?" Sasuke asked, bewildered as Lee suddenly grew angry. To hear what they were saying more clearly, Sasuke even took the earplugs out of his ears.

"You're Uchiha Sasuke, the top graduate of this year's class? I challenge you! I'll show you that hard work can let us defeat geniuses like you!" Rock Lee strode up to Sasuke and spoke loudly, his expression serious.

Sasuke was about to refuse such a pointless match when he saw the look in Rock Lee's eyes. It seemed that if Sasuke turned him down, Lee would keep looking at him with that scornful expression from then on.

And who was Sasuke? The second young master of the Uchiha clan. He was young and proud—how could he put up with that? His eyes instantly turned red, and his two-tomoe Sharingan fixed on Lee.

"Fine. I accept your challenge. Are we doing this here?"