Sasuke

After seeing the two sides take their places on the field, the teacher decided to begin the match.

"Begin!" the teacher commanded.

Sasuke attacked first. His movements were swift and textbook-perfect. A straight punch whooshed through the air toward Ning Xue's face, clearly meant to end the fight quickly and show off his strength.

Ning Xue easily dodged the punch with a sidestep. But to keep up his act, he pretended to stumble.

"That was close!" Naruto couldn't help shouting from the sidelines.

Sasuke was slightly surprised when his attack missed, but pressed on even harder, sweeping a kick toward Ning Xue's legs.

Once again, Ning Xue put his Oscar-worthy acting skills to use, flailing about as he jumped out of the way.

The somewhat clumsy-looking move drew laughter from the watching students, but to Ning Xue, their jeers were nothing more than wind in his ears.

Decent speed, but lacking power. His techniques didn't flow well, and his intentions were too obvious.

Ning Xue analyzed Sasuke between dodges. He occasionally counterattacked, using only the most basic Gentle Fist techniques and doing his best to maintain the level of skill a child his age should have.

Sasuke gradually gained the upper hand. His movements grew more fluid, and the confident curve of his lips became more pronounced. As far as he was concerned, this Branch Family member of the Hyuga Clan was nothing special.

"That should do it," Ning Xue muttered.

Then, after Sasuke's next strike, Ning Xue used his arm to absorb most of the force, pretended he couldn't block the punch, and fell with it.

"Thud!"

Ning Xue hit the ground hard, while Sasuke's hand remained suspended in the air.

"Stop! The match is over. Uchiha Sasuke wins!" the teacher announced promptly.

Sasuke lowered his hand and stood still, looking at Ning Xue on the ground. Though he had won, something felt off. That punch didn't seem strong enough to knock him down. And while Ning Xue's dodges had looked smooth, for a moment they had also seemed stiff.

"Thank you for the match."

Though confused, Sasuke maintained Uchiha etiquette as he spoke.

Ning Xue slowly got to his feet and brushed the dust off his clothes. His expression remained calm as he gave Sasuke and the teacher a slight bow.

"I wasn't good enough."

He was convinced his performance had been flawless. To everyone else, it had just looked like a normal spar: one fighter was stronger, but the other had tried hard.

But anyone observant would have noticed that something was just a little off.

The teacher saw that the match had been decided and that no one was arguing or making a fuss.

After having them form the Seal of Reconciliation, he sent them back to their places.

Once the children watching saw the result, they began discussing it.

"Hmph, Sasuke-kun really is the best!" Sakura and Ino cheered.

"What was that, Ning Xue? You should've fought back!" Naruto shouted, clearly frustrated with him.

But after he returned, he was bound to hear some unpleasant comments.

"Hey, Ning Xue! You could've dodged way better just now! Why weren't you even trying?"

Ning Xue glanced at him and replied flatly,

"I couldn't win." His blunt answer left Naruto at a loss for words, and all he could do was stew in frustration.

"Hmph, the Hyuga Clan isn't all that impressive after all!"

A mocking voice rang out. It was Inuzuka Kiba, holding Akamaru with undisguised contempt on his face.

"I thought you'd be strong, but you couldn't even manage a proper counterattack against Sasuke. Right, Akamaru?"

"Woof!" Akamaru barked in agreement.

Kiba's taunts were direct and stinging. Some of the students nearby, who already disliked Ning Xue's aloof attitude, snickered under their breath.

Ning Xue didn't even lift an eyelid at the taunt, but seeing someone act so nastily riled Naruto up. He wanted to argue with Kiba. (That was just the kind of idiot Naruto was. He'd been through it himself, so he wanted to help others. Of course, his frustration that Ning Xue wouldn't fight back was real, too.)

Just as Naruto was about to argue with Kiba, the teacher suddenly spoke up.

"Enough. Quiet! Next pair: Inuzuka Kiba and Akimichi Choji, get ready!"

"Tch, dead last." As he left, Kiba shot Naruto a taunting look.

"You..." Just as Naruto was about to say something, he saw that Kiba had already headed toward the center of the sparring ground.

Naruto was left fuming, with nowhere to direct his anger.

Meanwhile, Nara Shikamaru leaned against the back of the crowd, seemingly lost in thought, but he had watched the entire match.

He narrowed his eyes, yawned widely, and muttered under his breath,

"Ugh... what a drag... That Hyuga Ning Xue moves kind of strangely..."

Shikamaru was far more observant than his peers. He had noticed that Ning Xue's first two dodges had followed unusually clean and efficient paths. His split-second timing was nothing like that of someone with mediocre Taijutsu.

But afterward, his movements had deliberately become clumsy and sluggish. The awkwardness had been especially obvious when he fell at the end.

"Was he... deliberately hiding something?" Shikamaru scratched his head, wearing an unconcerned look as he continued to analyze the situation.

"Did he lose on purpose? Why? Afraid of drawing attention? Or does he have something else in mind... What a pain. Thinking about this gives me a headache."

He glanced at Sasuke, who was surrounded by girls, then looked at Ning Xue, standing alone at the edge of the crowd as if none of it concerned him. In the end, Shikamaru decided to bury his suspicions. Better to let sleeping dogs lie. He hated getting dragged into trouble.

Ning Xue was called up to spar a few more times during the rest of practical class.

He continued with the same strategy, judging each opponent's strength and deciding whether he should win or lose.

That way, he could keep everyone's impression of him in balance: just an average-talented member of the Branch Family.

By the end of class, most of his classmates had settled on an impression of him:

"A handsome guy with the Byakugan, mediocre skills, and an unsociable personality."

Of course, that was everyone's impression except for one particularly perceptive person.

On his way home, he waited at a spot everyone had to pass on their way back to the Hyuga Clan, ready to head home and train with his friend.

Meanwhile, Uchiha Sasuke was on his way home, deep in thought. He couldn't shake the feeling that something had been wrong with the match that day.

His opponent's dodges had seemed both smooth and stiff, and it had felt like his attacks hadn't... been full-strength?

He kept replaying that afternoon's match in his mind. The image of Hyuga Ning Xue falling at the end continued to strike him as somehow off.

He shook his head, pushing aside his doubts. The most important thing now was to grow stronger as quickly as possible, earn his father's recognition, and catch up to his older brother.