Finals

The stands at the ninja academy were nearly full on the day of the tournament finals.

Even quite a few teachers who rarely showed themselves had gathered around the perimeter.

The reason was simple: the two most dazzling freshmen of this class had finally met in the last official match.

Uchiha Ling.

Sasuke Uchiha.

This time, there was no overall-score cushion from the stage tests, nor was there a "draw ends the match" rule like in special training. There could be only one champion, and everyone wanted to see whose name would claim the top spot on the final rankings.

As Ling stepped into the arena, he could clearly feel the surrounding stares pressing down on him like a tide.

Yet what truly settled in his heart was the increasingly sharp gaze across from him.

Sasuke stood on the other side of the white line, his expression colder than ever.

It was not loss of control.

It was the kind of coldness that kept every flame buried deep inside, waiting for a single slash to split it open.

"The finals rules remain the same." Izumo stood at the edge of the field, his voice clear and firm. "Basic ninja tools, taijutsu, and beginner ninjutsu are permitted. Maliciously inflicting serious injuries is prohibited. The referee may halt the match at any time."

The moment his words fell, the sidelines went silent.

"Begin!"

Sasuke moved faster than anyone had expected.

Rather than pressing in after probing as he had before, he shot straight down the center with blistering speed from the very start, as if he had rehearsed this move in his mind countless times. Chakra compressed sharply beneath Ling's feet, and he immediately slid sideways. But Sasuke changed direction even faster with his second step, nearly following the path Ling had taken to evade him.

Smack!

Their first collision was brutally heavy.

Ling raised an arm to block, and his entire arm went faintly numb. He immediately realized that Sasuke's explosive power today had climbed another level beyond their public spar.

A wave of hushed exclamations rose from the sidelines.

"So fast!"

"Ling almost didn't fully dodge that!"

Kiba stood by the railing without even blinking. He knew perfectly well that if it had been him, Sasuke would likely have torn through his defense in those first two steps.

Unlike their earlier combat training, Sasuke had clearly poured all the results of these past few days of training into today's match. His Fire Release transitions were sharper, and his changes in direction had risen to a whole new level compared to the stage tests.

Ino's hand unconsciously pressed against the railing, her fingers tightening slightly. She had meant to act relaxed on the sidelines, but when she saw Sasuke force the pace to this extent in the very first exchange, her heart still clenched.

Not far away, Hinata was practically holding her breath. Even the pack of spare medicinal patches in her arms had been wrinkled slightly in her grip.

But Ling was Ling, after all.

He did not lose his composure just because he had been suppressed at the start. Instead, during their third exchange, he swiftly stabilized the rhythm. The more Sasuke tried to cut through his center with that sharp aggression, the more grounded Ling became, pressing himself into an even harder-to-move stone.

Sparks scraped from the edges of their wooden kunai.

They collided again and again, then broke apart again and again, moving so quickly that many ordinary students could barely follow them.

At the tenth breath, Sasuke suddenly opened half a body length of distance and rapidly formed hand seals.

Ling's eyes darkened.

Here it comes.

Fire Release!

The flames he unleashed this time were denser and straighter than ever before. They were not meant to suppress a wide area, but were like a true line of fire carrying searing killing power, made specifically to force an opening.

Ling cut sideways to evade. The instant his footing stabilized, Sasuke used the cover of the fireline to close in again, his fist nearly in front of Ling's face.

This was the main rhythm Sasuke had prepared for today.

First, use speed to cut in and force you back. Then use fire to pressure you, and finally use even faster close combat to repeatedly push the fight into its most uncomfortable position.

This was already the third time Ling had forcibly pushed the Divine Pattern Eye's analytical ability to its limit today. Under normal circumstances, he would never have done this.

Ling did not retreat too far. Instead, in the third round of continuous pressure, he pushed the Divine Pattern Eye to a higher level for the first time.

A stabbing pain instantly exploded from the depths of his eyes.

But along with it came a clearer grasp of every detail.

The truly dense portions within the flames.

The fleeting shift in Sasuke's center of gravity when his toes turned.

Where the next punch would land.

After seeing it, he finally stopped merely dismantling Sasuke's attacks and began to bite back.

Ling sank his feet. Compressed power surged from his calves through his waist and back, and in an extremely short distance, he drove forward explosively, striking in rapid succession with shoulder, elbow, and fist.

For the first time, Sasuke was forced to truly retreat.

The atmosphere at the sidelines instantly exploded.

Ino almost subconsciously stepped half a pace forward, while Hinata's fingertips had already clenched white. Shikamaru stood in the back row, his usual lazy demeanor completely gone for once.

"Don't lose..." Ino murmured, almost unconsciously.

Even she froze after saying it, as if she had not expected to reveal the most direct reaction in her heart.

Hinata did not look at her. She only watched Ling in the arena, her gaze quiet yet utterly serious. She did not voice it like Ino had, but her prayer-like tension was no less than anyone else's.

Sasuke quickly halted his retreat.

He had never been someone who would be thrown off by a single counterattack. The moment his heels steadied, he pressed forward again, and this time he was even fiercer than at the start. It was not simply speed; he had clearly made use of every rhythm he had tested over the preceding exchanges.

The first strike cut at the hand.

The second pressed at the shoulder.

The third drove straight for the centerline.

Ling dismantled the first two attacks in succession, but on the third, the old injury at his shoulder was ultimately tugged for an instant. In that barely perceptible pause, Sasuke's gaze sharpened abruptly, and his fist surged in close.

Bang!

The two clashed head-on once more.

Ling was driven half a step backward by the blow, his sole scraping a shallow mark across the ground. Urgent gasps immediately rose from the stands. Ino nearly bit down on her lower lip, while Hinata's grip around the medicinal patches tightened further and further.

But in the next instant, Ling forcibly stabilized that slight backward slide.

He neither retreated nor tried to open the distance with a larger movement. Instead, in the narrowest possible space, he twisted his shoulder line sideways and slashed his wooden kunai toward Sasuke's wrist with a backhand strike.

Sasuke raised an arm to block, and sparks flashed.

The two of them had once again closed to a distance where they could not possibly get any nearer.

"How did they even train..." someone muttered in the stands.

It was a question shared by many students.

The intensity in the arena no longer felt anything like an ordinary ninja academy match. It was not about who had more tricks, but who could hold on without letting go at the most dangerous distance.

After the fifteenth breath, Sasuke changed again.

He no longer pressed forward continuously. Instead, he first withdrew half a step, then used that half-step to accelerate again. It looked as if he had loosened the rhythm, but in truth, he had buried his edge even deeper, making it harder to stop when it erupted again.

Ling saw through it.

But precisely because he saw through it, he knew even more clearly that if he could not hold steady here, the entire match would be dragged back into Sasuke's speed.

If he retreated another half-step, this fight would fall completely under his opponent's control.

The stabbing pain behind his eyes grew heavier and heavier.

The Divine Pattern Sharingan felt as though something were prying it open from within, little by little. The second pattern had not yet truly closed, but it had already begun to faintly affect the speed of his judgment.

Ling did not immediately continue raising his ocular power.

It was not that he could not, but that the time had not yet come.

He forcibly suppressed the urge to delve deeper, using only the portion he could currently control to observe, dismantle, and wait.

At the sidelines, Shikamaru suddenly said in a low voice, "It's coming."

Kiba frowned. "What is?"

"The rhythm that'll truly decide the winner." Shikamaru stared into the arena, his expression unusually grave. "They're both testing to see who reveals a flaw first, but at this intensity, it's impossible for neither of them to make one forever."

As though answering his words, Sasuke suddenly formed hand seals again.

This time, the opening motion for his Fire Release was even shorter than before.

So short that it seemed he had no intention of leaving his opponent time to react at all.

As the fireline roared toward him, Ling could even feel the heatwave striking his face ahead of the flames. He twisted his footing and forcibly cut out through the side, but Sasuke had already slipped in from the other side under the cover of the firelight.

Too fast.

But precisely because it was so fast, the stabbing pain in Ling's eyes was finally forced to a new peak.

In that instant, the world suddenly seemed clearer—and sharper.

The second, faintly visible pattern at the edge of his pupils seemed only half a step away from truly closing.

And the two fighters in the arena had finally pushed this final match to its ultimate threshold at the same time.