Evenly Matched

The atmosphere on the training ground had been pushed to its most tense point by Ling and Sasuke's battle.

Hardly any of the watching students spoke anymore.

The two figures in the field were fighting faster and faster, their blows growing heavier and heavier. Anyone could tell that this was no longer an ordinary preliminary match. They had thrown out all the sharpness, pride, and unwillingness they had been holding back these past few days.

Sasuke formed hand seals once more.

His movements were faster than before, and his Fire Release was prepared in almost a single breath. But with the aid of the Divine Pattern Eye, Ling saw the path of chakra gathering toward Sasuke's throat in advance. His body cut left almost before his mind could react.

The flames swept past his chest.

At that very instant, Ling flicked out two shuriken with his backhand.

One flew straight at Sasuke from the front, while the second cut toward a wider angle. Sasuke blocked the first and was about to press forward when the second rebounded off the edge of a training-ground pillar and came back at him from behind and to the side.

"It can turn like that?" Kiba blurted out.

That was not luck.

It was a calculated angle.

Sasuke was forced to pause for half a breath, and Ling seized that opening to close in again. When they collided at close range, fists, elbows, knees, and shoulders all became weapons. Neither could maintain perfectly elegant movements anymore. Instead, they kept breaking down, seizing, and forcing each other into increasingly uncomfortable positions at the limit of their range.

After the seventh head-on collision, Sasuke suddenly shouted low and forcibly linked Fire Release with taijutsu once again.

The flame did not spew outward. Instead, it erupted close to his body, using the heat and glare to cut off Ling's vision before he drove forward with a heavy frontal strike. It was an exceptionally clever and ruthless style of attack.

Cries of alarm rang out from the sidelines.

But the divine patterns in Ling's eyes lit up more clearly at that moment.

An ordinary person would have lost their judgment in that instant of heat and flashing light. He would not.

Because what he saw was not the flames on the surface, but the true point where chakra was gathering within them.

Rather than retreating, he cut into the edge of the flames. His arm burned with pain, but at the same time, he drove all his compressed strength into his right fist.

Bang!

Their attacks landed almost simultaneously.

Sasuke's fist smashed into Ling's shoulder, numbing his entire arm; Ling's heavy blow struck Sasuke in the chest, sending him abruptly off balance as well.

The next moment, both of them retreated.

One stepped onto the edge of the white line.

The other dropped to one knee inside the circle.

Everyone at the sidelines froze.

No one could say who had gained the advantage in that exchange.

Izumo and Iruka stepped forward almost at the same time and shouted sharply, "Enough!"

The sound of the wind rushed back into their ears.

Ling braced himself against the ground and slowly rose. His shoulder burned fiercely, and for the first time, his breathing was visibly unsteady. Sasuke did not rise easily either. His chest heaved far more heavily than usual, and his tightly drawn lips had gone pale.

Ino had unconsciously taken half a step forward before the white line at the edge of the field stopped her short. She had wanted to keep up her usual look of not caring much about anything, but when she saw the reddened patch on Ling's shoulder, her gaze darkened at once.

Hinata stood farther away, yet she saw everything with perfect clarity. She gripped her sleeve until even her fingertips turned faintly white, repeating to herself again and again that at least he could still stand.

Izumo swept his gaze over their positions and injuries. After several moments of silence, he finally announced the result.

"This match is a draw."

The sidelines instantly erupted.

"A draw?"

"They really tied?"

Kiba opened his mouth, and after a long while, finally squeezed out, "That's way too absurd."

Shikamaru let out a soft breath. "Troublesome. Now the later public match is really going to have the whole school watching."

Ino looked at the two figures in the field, whose breathing had not yet fully calmed, her eyes filled with complicated emotions. She had thought she would care more about who won, but when she truly saw this result, something else surfaced in her heart first.

Ling's shoulder was seriously hurt.

Sasuke stood by the white line, staring at Ling for several breaths.

In the past, he would never have accepted an outcome like this. But this time, he did not say "Again," nor did he immediately challenge the ruling of a draw. Because he knew better than anyone that, in that final exchange, Ling truly had not been suppressed by him.

Evenly matched.

Those four words were harder to accept than victory or defeat, and even harder to escape.

"The public match later on won't end the same way," Sasuke finally said, his voice slightly hoarse.

Ling raised his eyes to meet his gaze and replied calmly, "Then we'll settle it then."

There was no anger in his words, yet they carried more weight than any harsh threat.

The surroundings fell silent.

Only at that moment did many students truly understand that the question of "who is stronger, Ling or Sasuke" was no longer merely after-class gossip at the ninja academy. It would follow them into the coming public match and be remembered by even more people.

For the first time, some people realized that even so-called geniuses could be pushed until their breathing turned ragged and their clothes were torn. Yet the more that happened, the more chilling the sharpness of their refusal to lower their heads became.

Chu Yun watched the two of them, his feelings unusually complicated.

As a teacher, he naturally hoped there would be more geniuses like them. But he also knew that when two Uchiha Clan prodigies, both far too sharp, stood together, they would sooner or later create an even greater collision.

Before the crowd dispersed, Iruka called both of them over to treat their injuries.

Ling's shoulder had been grazed by Fire Release. The injury was not severe, but the skin was visibly red. Sasuke's chest still felt stuffy from that punch, making it difficult for him to breathe. As medicine was applied, the two stood half a step apart, neither taking the initiative to speak.

Ino lingered at the doorway as if she wanted to enter, but in the end, she stopped outside. She knew that if she really barged in at a time like this, she would probably say something irrelevant again. Yet because of that, she realized for the first time that some worries could not be easily suppressed with a simple "Don't push yourself too hard." In the end, she placed the clean roll of bandages she had brought by the door, as though finding herself a reason to feel a little more at ease without going inside. She rarely lost her composure like this.

Hinata held the ointment she had prepared tightly in her palm for a long time, but ultimately did not offer it to him. It was not that she did not want to. She simply knew that there seemed to be too little she could do right now.

But from this day onward, many things no longer needed to be said.

In everyone's eyes, the two of them had already reached the same height.