Mother Custody Battle

"Today, I'm definitely going to teach you a harsh lesson!"

"It's Kiba Inuzuka!" Hinata Hyuga looked toward Kiba Inuzuka and couldn't help crying out.

Compared to a month ago, Kiba Inuzuka's changes were obvious. He had grown a little taller, and his body looked sturdier too.

Moreover, there was clearly a little more ruthlessness on his face than before. When he looked at Naruto, it was easy to sense that Kiba Inuzuka's fighting spirit was exceptionally intense at this moment.

Seeing this, even Ino Yamanaka couldn't help worrying for Naruto. After all, comebacks had already happened before.

The previous two times, Naruto had suddenly defeated Kiba and Sasuke.

"To defeat you, Akamaru and I trained hard for an entire month." Kiba Inuzuka impatiently raised a hand and pointed at Naruto.

Today was the day he would wash away his humiliation.

But before Naruto, who was sitting calmly in his seat above, could make a move, a hand suddenly landed on Kiba Inuzuka's shoulder.

When he turned around, he saw a black-haired boy wearing an incredibly smug expression, grinning at him crookedly. "Weakling, get lost!"

"Sasuke!"

Upon seeing the boy's arrival, Sakura Haruno immediately slapped the table and rose to her feet. She hadn't seen Sasuke Uchiha in far too long.

Sakura Haruno swept her gaze across the room and thought, Over the past month, Sasuke's support group had dwindled until only I remained. Everyone else had basically gone off to follow Naruto.

Only I persevered. Sasuke will definitely notice me now.

In reality, Sasuke Uchiha only had Naruto Uzumaki in his eyes at this moment. There was a lion hidden in his gaze!

"Sasuke Uchiha, what do you mean by that?" Kiba Inuzuka shoved Sasuke Uchiha's hand away in annoyance.

"Exactly what it sounds like!" Sasuke Uchiha stuffed his hands into his pockets. "You're not qualified to challenge Naruto at all. I'm the one who's going to defeat him!"

"Oh? So you're saying you want me to beat you up too?" Kiba Inuzuka was extremely confident right now. He didn't even take Sasuke Uchiha, the top student in the class, seriously.

After training so hard at home under his sister's and mother's guidance, he felt that he could utterly crush the version of himself from a month ago.

Yet Sasuke Uchiha's response remained cold. "If you're looking for trouble, I don't mind taking care of you before I challenge Naruto."

"Oh, confidence is a good thing, but overconfidence will only bring you disaster." Kiba Inuzuka lowered his stance, ready to deal with Sasuke Uchiha first.

This time, Sasuke Uchiha said nothing. He merely crooked a finger at Kiba Inuzuka provocatively.

No one had expected the atmosphere to suddenly become so heated, and the students in their seats grew excited as well.

"It looks like both of them have improved a lot. Can Naruto still beat them?"

Naruto had indeed seemed very strong when school first started, but everyone had seen what he had been doing every day over the past month.

Either talking to Hinata Hyuga or flirting with Ino Yamanaka. He hadn't trained hard at all.

Their gazes turned toward Naruto in unison, only to discover that he didn't seem to care much about the fight. He was still sitting there, spacing out on his own.

Sasuke Uchiha noticed this too and snorted coldly. Ignoring me, huh!

Naruto, just wait. Once I take care of Kiba, I'll soon crush that arrogance of yours!

Fueled by his anger toward Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha leaped backward the instant Kiba Inuzuka charged at him. Then, he immediately flung three shuriken at Kiba.

This was one of the things he had trained in over the past month: throwing weapons!

Kiba Inuzuka couldn't dodge and could only block them head-on. Fortunately, he had learned the Four Claws Technique. His claws had been reinforced with chakra and were hard enough to deflect the shuriken.

The clash of claws and shuriken rang out sharply, and one of the shuriken was knocked toward the other students.

"Hey, you two, watch where you're aiming!"

Shikamaru Nara, who had nearly been caught in the crossfire, complained. Sweat trickled down his forehead as he commented, "Those two really have gotten much stronger. If it were me, I'd probably get hurt in a single exchange."

Because the classroom was small, Kiba Inuzuka quickly caught up to Sasuke Uchiha and swiftly swiped with his claws.

Sasuke Uchiha showed no fear and began fighting barehanded against Kiba Inuzuka, who had activated the Four Claws Technique.

The two traded blows back and forth, neither giving an inch.

Everyone in the class was stunned. There was no other reason—the strength Sasuke Uchiha and Kiba Inuzuka displayed was simply far beyond what it should have been. If any of them faced either one, they would probably have already lost.

"Looks like I'll have to train hard when I get home too." Shino Aburame felt the pressure. He had originally thought he could fight Sasuke evenly.

Now, it would probably be hard enough just to avoid losing within three minutes.

So...

Could Naruto still defeat them now?

Shino Aburame looked at Naruto and saw that Choji Akimichi in front of him also wore a worried expression. Apparently, he wasn't the only one who thought Naruto might not be up to it.

"Who do you think will win between those two?"

"I don't know. It feels like they're evenly matched!"

Evenly matched?

Hmph!

Sasuke Uchiha heard someone's words and felt quite displeased. He found an opening, quickly pulled away from Kiba Inuzuka again, and activated his Sharingan.

He had trained painstakingly for a month to take Mother back from Naruto Uzumaki, not to play fighting games with Kiba Inuzuka.

The instant the Sharingan activated, Kiba Inuzuka's movements suddenly slowed in Sasuke Uchiha's eyes. He quickly found Kiba Inuzuka's opening and threw a vicious punch in that instant.

In the blink of an eye.

In just a moment, Kiba Inuzuka felt a sharp pain in his chest before being sent flying into the podium.

At that moment, Kiba Inuzuka felt immense pressure. He hadn't expected that even after activating the Four Claws Technique, he would still lose to barehanded Sasuke Uchiha.

He hadn't even gotten the chance to beat up Naruto Uzumaki before being defeated by someone else first.

Looking at Sasuke Uchiha's scarlet eyes, Kiba Inuzuka shouted unwillingly, "Damn it!"

"Sasuke's movements were so fast!" Ino Yamanaka's little mouth fell open slightly in disbelief.

At that moment, Sakura Haruno shouted from nearby.

"That's amazing! Sasuke won!"

Her voice was loud—deliberately so.

She cast a disdainful gaze at Ino Yamanaka, once her best friend and rival.

Sakura Haruno thought, Ino Pig, Ino Pig, you really are blind.

What's so good about Naruto? He was nothing more than an idiot who used to follow me around like a puppy. Sasuke is the only truly outstanding one!

Noticing Sakura Haruno's gaze, Ino Yamanaka glared back at her unhappily.

Still, she truly began worrying about Naruto at this point. Sasuke was so strong now—could Naruto still beat him?

"Naruto Uzumaki, let's go."

Sasuke Uchiha looked toward Naruto, lifted his chin, and said proudly:

"I didn't use a single ninjutsu just now. I saved most of my chakra for you. I hope you don't lose too quickly and leave me unsatisfied."

After saying that, Sasuke Uchiha ignored whether Naruto agreed and jumped out through the window on his own.

Immediately afterward, the students all ran outside as well, already waiting to watch the show.

Naruto couldn't help complaining, "No matter which world it is, people still love gossiping as much as ever."

After saying that, Naruto stretched lazily and slowly walked outside!

Because he was moving far too slowly, someone had already started muttering, "Hah, he's still putting on an act at a time like this!"

"He's taking his sweet time. He looks so relaxed. Does he think he can still win easily?"

"He's probably afraid of losing face if he loses, so he's hesitating!"

Umm...

Such a common cliché. It usually appeared in trashy power-fantasy novels, where the protagonist would shake his head speechlessly after hearing it and explain internally that he wasn't deliberately doing whatever.

But...

Naruto Uzumaki was doing it on purpose. He listened to those remarks with interest and swept his gaze around the area.

Because Lino Yamanaka hadn't hidden herself very carefully, he could roughly guess where she was hiding.

Next, he needed to put on a good show in front of everyone.

[Fortunately, it wasn't putting on a show with everyone's equipment.]

???

System, you're so dirty!

Shaking his head, Naruto walked to stand opposite Sasuke Uchiha and said softly, "The wind is quite noisy today!"

"?" Sasuke Uchiha frowned. "What does that mean?"

"I mean, do you really want to fight?" Naruto asked.

"Hah!" Sasuke Uchiha sneered. "Don't tell me you're scared!"

After his arrogant words fell, the girls who had briefly become Naruto fans over the past month began cheering for Sasuke.

Among them, Sakura Haruno cheered the loudest as always.

"Sasuke, teach that idiot Naruto a harsh lesson!"

After saying that, Sakura Haruno looked at Ino Yamanaka again. After Sasuke showed his strength, Ino Yamanaka was currently the only one who hadn't defected.

Seeing Sakura Haruno act as if she had won herself, Ino Yamanaka could no longer hold back and began cheering for Naruto.

"Naruto, go for it! Beat Sasuke up hard!"

That was what she said, but Ino Yamanaka actually didn't have much confidence in Naruto. She muttered inwardly, If I'd known, I wouldn't have kept pestering Naruto. If he had trained properly this past month, he might have had a chance to win.

The Sharingan precisely captured everyone's expressions, and Sasuke Uchiha grew increasingly confident in his victory.

Brother, my training over the past month wasn't wasted.

Aunt Mikoto, I'll soon be able to call you Mom again.

Naruto Uzumaki, I'm definitely going to win this mother custody battle!

Sasuke Uchiha took a deep breath and said another exceptionally cool line. "If you want to surrender, do it now. I can still forgive you."

"No, what I mean is, you've already lost Mom. What else do you have to bet against me? I don't really want to fight a meaningless battle."

"What do you want?"

"Simple. If you lose again this time, how about letting Mom move in with me?"

When Naruto finished speaking, Sasuke was slightly stunned.

But after thinking for a moment, he still nodded heavily.

After a month of training with his brother and with the Sharingan as his safeguard, Sasuke Uchiha possessed absolute confidence.

Even his most trusted brother, Itachi Uchiha, had said that he was now qualified to be a Genin.

Therefore, in Sasuke's eyes, Naruto Uzumaki was scared and trying to frighten him away with an enormous wager.

With his Sharingan fixed on Naruto Uzumaki, who was full of openings, Sasuke Uchiha sneered. Did he think I would be afraid because of that?

Hah!

Impossible!

His answer was, "Fine!"

The instant his words fell, Sasuke Uchiha immediately formed hand seals and unleashed a ninjutsu.

Although the Naruto before him was full of openings, this was an important mother custody battle. He had to go all out.

Sorry, Naruto. This move might seriously injure you.

But even a lion used its full strength to hunt a rabbit!

"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"

A fireball as tall as a person erupted from Sasuke Uchiha's mouth, its scorching heat making everyone present tremble.

Lino Yamanaka, hiding in a tree, couldn't help freezing. "What's going on? Are they mortal enemies?"

Uzuki Yugao, hidden in the shadows, drew her blade and prepared to rush over and split the flames apart.

Itachi Uchiha frowned slightly and raised his hand to form seals, intending to unleash a Great Fireball to collide with Sasuke's and extinguish it.

Hinata Hyuga was terrified, but she quickly recalled the happiness she had experienced while spending time with Naruto lately and suppressed her fear.

She began running toward Naruto.

Ino Yamanaka was frightened stiff, but when she saw Hinata Hyuga take that step forward, she gritted her teeth and followed.

Kiba Inuzuka, who had only just painfully gotten back up to watch the battle, lowered his head dejectedly upon seeing that move.

His defeat hadn't been unjust.

Then he looked toward Naruto and thought, You've lost too, Naruto.

Next, I'll fight you for second place in the class.

"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"

The next second, Naruto Uzumaki, watched by everyone, formed seals with one hand and spat out a fireball as well.

Its size... was more than five times that of Sasuke Uchiha's, and its temperature was even more outrageous.

It almost instantly swallowed Sasuke Uchiha's fireball whole.

PS: Dear handsome, dashing, suave, and brilliant readers, this humble author kneels and begs for votes~!

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