Ling and Sasuke

After the flames brushed past his side, Uchiha Ling could clearly smell the scorched odor seared out by the intense heat.

It was not from an injury.

It was the edge of his clothes that had been singed.

But that detail meant nothing right now, because Sasuke Uchiha's second wave of attacks was already close behind.

He did not stop.

He did not give Ling even half a moment to catch his breath.

That was one of Sasuke's most terrifying traits. Once he judged that you had been suppressed by even the slightest margin, every move that followed would cut downward like a blade, until he had completely cut you apart.

A faint glimmer rose in Ling's eyes as the Divine Pattern Eye maintained a higher level of precision for an instant.

The next moment, the world in his vision was broken down into finer detail.

The angle of force in Sasuke's shoulders.

The point where chakra gathered in his legs.

The direction in which the remaining force of the flames had yet to fully dissipate.

Everything was clearer than usual.

He did not continue defending alone. The instant Sasuke pressed in for his third step, Ling suddenly drove forward. Compressed chakra burst briefly beneath his feet, launching his whole body into the most dangerous close-range distance.

Bang!

Their shoulders collided hard, and they both staggered aside almost at the same time.

Sasuke clearly had not expected Ling to countercharge at a time like this. His expression shifted slightly, but he did not hesitate in the least. He swung back with a vicious elbow strike. Ling raised an arm to block it, hooked his other hand around Sasuke's wrist, and lowered his body, trying to seize the center directly.

The two forces clamped down on each other fiercely at the shortest possible distance.

The sidelines were so quiet that only breathing remained.

Everyone could see that this was no ordinary fight between students. This was truly a contest of who refused to bow their head. Whoever slowed by half a beat would have their rhythm swallowed whole.

Sasuke suddenly pulled back, his feet explosively exerting force.

His burst movement differed from Ling's. It lacked that heavy feeling of compression, but it was sharper and more direct, like a blade thrusting out in an instant. Though Ling saw the trajectory, the move still forced him half a step back.

That half-step was all Sasuke needed to raise his hand again.

Fire Style!

This time, it was not wide-ranging, but a shorter, faster stream of flame meant specifically to cut off his position.

Ling compressed chakra beneath his feet again and slid sideways to evade, while simultaneously throwing a wooden kunai to disrupt the fire stream's path. The two collided in midair with a modest explosion, scattering fragments in every direction.

"They can actually use Fire Style to this extent?" Ino's eyes were full of shock.

Shikamaru's gaze was more solemn.

The truly frightening thing about Ling and Sasuke was not that either possessed one especially powerful skill. It was that at their age, they had already begun learning how to blend different abilities into the same confrontation.

In the arena, Sasuke pressed forward again.

Ling knew he could not let the other side dictate the rhythm any longer.

If Sasuke was a blade, then he had to become something heavier now. Not merely block it, but force that blade to strike him and then make it unable to cut smoothly again.

With that thought, he stopped conservatively using only brief lateral movements. For the first time in this duel, he channeled compressed chakra enhancement into his upper body.

His meridians stung sharply for an instant.

But at the same time, his movements suddenly became heavier.

When Sasuke's fist pressed close again, Ling did not dodge. Instead, he smacked Sasuke's wrist aside head-on, used the recoil to close in, then unleashed shoulder, elbow, and fist in one continuous sequence.

This was the most complete burst of close-quarters combat from his recent special training.

Sasuke was forced back two steps, yet the sharpness in his eyes only grew brighter.

"Again!"

The words were forced out through clenched teeth.

Ling did not answer. He simply met him once more.

The instant they collided again, even the fine sand at the edge of the white line was jolted into the air.

This time, Sasuke did not simply cut straight in. He first used a shallow feint forward to force Ling to raise his hand, then altered his footwork and cut back into the centerline from the outside. Most people would have been half a beat too slow in their judgment, but with the Divine Pattern Eye's aid, Ling nearly saw the shift in Sasuke's center of gravity before it happened. He blocked with his returning elbow, then used the momentum to press down with his shoulder, forcibly dragging them both back into the most uncomfortable close-range distance.

Smack! Smack!

The two impacts were so fast they sounded like one.

Sasuke drove a knee upward. Ling tightened his waist and barely avoided it, though the hem of his clothes was still grazed. The next moment, he turned his wrist, and the wooden kunai slid along Sasuke's forearm, forcing him to retreat another half-step.

A deathly silence fell by the stands.

Many people could no longer keep up with their movements. They could only guess how fierce this confrontation had become from the occasional burst of sparks, the wooden kunai knocked aside, and the repeated sharp collisions.

Ino's hand, which had been resting on the railing, had unconsciously clenched tightly. For the first time, she realized that watching Ling fight made her even more nervous than fighting herself. It was not that she feared he was not strong enough, but that he was pushing himself too hard.

Hinata watched without moving as well, even breathing so lightly that it seemed she was afraid of disturbing the arena.

"He put too much force into that shoulder again," Shikamaru suddenly said in a low voice.

Ino immediately looked up and indeed saw that Ling's right shoulder moved slightly more heavily than before. It was not a mistake, but the normal feedback from forcibly pushing chakra upward. Her heart sank slightly, yet at a time like this, there was nothing she could do.

In the arena, Sasuke had clearly noticed it as well.

He did not hesitate. He immediately seized that brief instant before Ling's center of gravity settled back down and formed seals again.

Fire Style exploded from the front, and the heat wave was fiercer than in the previous exchange.

This time, he was not merely forcing Ling to move. He wanted to use the sudden obstruction of vision to brutally shatter the rhythm Ling had just stabilized.

But Ling's judgment was not shaken by the flames.

Through the Divine Pattern Eye, the fire was not merely an obstruction, but layers of clearly structured chakra flow. Almost instinctively, he cut through its thinnest point, sliding along the edge of the fire stream. In the next instant, he was already at Sasuke's side.

Sasuke's expression changed sharply.

He had not expected Ling to see through the point where his Fire Style would land so quickly, but his body still reacted with speed. He turned, raised his arm, and intercepted in one fluid motion. The two collided again, the recoil forcing each of them back a step.

Wind swept across the training ground. Dust along the edge of the white line was repeatedly kicked up and settled again. Both had tears in the edges of their clothes, and their breathing was heavier than at the start, yet neither showed any true signs of running out of strength.

This was not one side overpowering the other.

They had become a deadlock, locked in a relentless struggle.

Izumo and Iruka stood at the side, both looking more serious than usual. They could both see that this confrontation had reached the edge of a certain limit.

If it continued, then when a real opening appeared next time, victory and injury would likely come together.

And the two in the arena clearly had no intention of stopping.