The Night Before the Finals

The entire night before the tournament finals, Konoha seemed quieter than usual.

To most people, it was nothing more than a match between new students.

But for Uchiha Ling and Sasuke Uchiha, this final had long ceased to be just a competition.

It was like a string pulled taut to its limit. Every tie, every refusal to yield, every battle for first place, every public confrontation would collide again in tomorrow's match.

After returning to the clan grounds that evening, the first thing Ling did was not train, but thoroughly assess his condition.

The old injury near his shoulder had mostly healed.

His chakra pathways were slightly sore after their repeated high-intensity use.

His overall chakra was stable.

The second pattern of the Divine Pattern Eye had yet to fully take shape, but it could already improve his analytical precision for short periods.

He noted each point in his mind before slowly beginning the most basic cycle of breathing and chakra regulation.

He could not train recklessly tonight.

Especially not force those eyes again.

Even so, as chakra circulated through his pathways again and again, a faint stabbing pain occasionally came from the depths of his eyes, reminding him that the second pattern had not stopped growing.

Footsteps suddenly sounded outside the courtyard gate.

Ling looked up and saw his father standing beneath the corridor, silently watching him.

"The finals are tomorrow," the man said quietly.

"I know."

"Sasuke will be difficult to deal with."

This was the first time his father had used something close to an acknowledging tone when mentioning that boy from the same clan.

Ling raised his eyes. "So will I."

His father looked at him, then slowly nodded after a moment. "Don't think only about winning. Think carefully about what the Uchiha Clan truly cannot afford to lose."

Those words were not telling him to be cautious.

On the contrary, they reminded him that even when true strength won, it should win with restraint.

Ling took the words to heart without asking further.

After his father left, the courtyard returned to silence. Yet that silence did not relax him. Instead, it made many subtle things clearer—the faint sting in his eyes that was still slowly pushing the Divine Pattern to grow, as well as the words Ino and Hinata had each left him with today.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Uchiha Clan grounds, Sasuke trained alone at the practice field until late into the night.

Flames lit up the darkness again and again, making the unwillingness and sharpness in his eyes ever clearer. To him, losing to Ling in the stage assessment and then merely tying him in their public confrontation had already made tomorrow's final a battle he had to win.

No one understood better than Sasuke himself how badly he wanted to push back down that name which was now always mentioned alongside his own.

Over at the Academy, Ino reorganized her wrist guards and bandages at home, but she had no interest at all in the fact that her own run had ended in the semifinals. Her mind was instead filled with how Ling would fight tomorrow and what Sasuke would force out of him.

"What are you daydreaming about?" an elder of the Yamanaka family asked.

Ino snapped back to her senses and vaguely replied, "Thinking about the match."

She did not say who she was really thinking about.

But even deep into the night, she could not resist taking out the spare strip of wrist guard cloth left over from daytime training. She straightened the wrist guard again and again, smoothing its ties over and over. It was clearly just a small thing, yet she fussed over it as though she were preparing a very solemn gift.

"Wouldn't giving it to him directly be too obvious...?"

The moment the thought surfaced, she frowned first.

Ino hated this hesitant side of herself most.

But when it came down to it, she had to admit that she cared more deeply than she had imagined. She could smile from the sidelines and say, "Don't lose too badly," and pretend everything was easy, but the words she truly wanted to say in her heart were only this.

Don't lose to him.

Early the next morning, she still brought the wrist guard to the Academy.

When she saw Ling, she deliberately acted casual and shoved it into his hand. "I happened to grab an extra one. If your old one comes loose during the finals, you won't be the only one embarrassed."

Ling lowered his head and looked at it.

It was exactly the right size, and the placement of the straps had clearly been carefully chosen.

"Thanks."

That single sentence only made Ino's carefully casual mood more unsettled. She could only lift her chin as if nothing had happened. "Remember to use it. Don't you dare lose."

Hinata, on the other hand, was much quieter.

She restacked the medicinal patches left over from daytime practice one by one. After hesitating for a long time, she ultimately prepared another set. She could not be of much help, but at least if Ling was injured, she hoped she could still do something.

After hesitating until the very end, Hinata placed a tiny amulet beside the medicinal patches. It was not intricately made, nor was it especially exquisite, but she had quietly spent a long time folding it herself.

She did not dare say so many things directly like Ino did.

So she could only hide all the worries she could not voice inside something so small and light.

The next morning, before too many people had arrived, she quietly slipped the items into Ling's ninja tool bag. After doing it, she seemed startled by her own boldness, and even the tips of her ears turned deeply red.

But when she thought of Ling possibly getting hurt in the finals, or becoming more exhausted than he had ever been before, she felt that this small bit of courage was worth it.

As the night grew deeper, Ling finally finished regulating his breathing and prepared to return to his room to rest. Before entering, he looked one last time at the water vat in the courtyard.

And when he put away his ninja tool bag, his fingertips happened to touch the new wrist guard Ino had stuffed into his hands during the day, as well as the small amulet Hinata had quietly placed in his bag that evening.

Neither item was heavy, yet his fingers paused at the mouth of the bag.

The wrist guard was neatly arranged, like that person's usual bright manner and the way she stubbornly refused to fully reveal what she truly thought.

The amulet was far too light, yet also far too quiet, as though someone had carefully folded all her unspoken worries into it.

Ling suddenly realized that tomorrow's battle was no longer only about his own victory or defeat.

Moonlight fell across the water's surface, reflecting the young man's quiet, cold features and the faint second dark pattern at the edge of his pupils.

It had not fully closed yet.

But it was already like an answer written into fate, quietly waiting for the moment it truly opened.

Ling slowly withdrew his gaze, his eyes becoming calm to the extreme.

He did not necessarily have to rely on these eyes to win tomorrow's battle.

But if the time truly came when he had to go further, he would not retreat.

Because no one who had reached this point had any path left to retreat on.