After the weekend ended, Sasuke Uchiha returned to the Ninja Academy feeling that his evolved Sharingan and newly mastered jutsu had made him considerably stronger. Almost unable to wait, he walked to the back row and stood behind Naruto. Suppressing his eagerness to fight and his desire to avenge his humiliation, he issued a challenge in a low voice:
"Naruto Uzumaki, I challenge you again. Today, after school."
Naruto turned to look at him, showing little surprise, and nodded calmly. "Of course."
Then he added a condition.
"But you'll have to find somewhere for us to fight."
"Fine. Just follow me after school."
Seeing how readily Naruto agreed, Sasuke said nothing more. He turned briskly and returned to his seat in the front row, then closed his eyes to rest and prepare himself for the afternoon's fight.
Kiba Inuzuka, who had been listening closely from beside them, immediately leaned toward Naruto and lowered his voice, sounding puzzled. "Hey, Naruto! You're just agreeing like that? That guy clearly means business!"
"It's just a sparring match, isn't it?"
Naruto shrugged indifferently and looked at Kiba. "You won't fight me."
He counted on his fingers. "Shino is willing, but he won't attack with his strongest bugs. He says he's afraid he won't be able to control them properly.
"And when we fight, I might accidentally kill the bugs he worked so hard to raise, so I have to hold back."
"As for Shikamaru, you know how he is. He thinks any kind of fighting is too much trouble."
"Choji's willing enough, but he hasn't learned his clan's secret techniques yet, so fighting him isn't much fun."
He wrapped up with the relaxed tone of someone who had found a suitable opponent:
"Now Sasuke Uchiha is challenging me himself. He's pretty strong, and he's willing to go all out. I guess... I don't really have a reason to refuse, do I?"
"Akamaru's still too little to fight. Of course I'm not going to fight you seriously!"
Holding the soundly sleeping Akamaru in his arms, Kiba deliberately edged toward Shino's seat as he spoke, making an exaggerated show of not wanting to be near Naruto.
Just as he successfully "claimed" the seat beside Shino with Akamaru in his arms and was about to breathe a sigh of relief, a soft but clear voice came from behind them.
"Um... may I... sit here?"
It was Hinata Hyuga. Her hands were nervously clasped in front of her, and a faint blush colored her fair cheeks. Her gaze flickered shyly toward the empty seat beside Naruto, yet held a trace of anticipation.
"No."
Kiba blurted it out almost instinctively, sounding a little like he was guarding his food. He considered this corner the territory of their little group of "buddies."
"Of course, Hinata. Have a seat."
Naruto's gentle voice sounded at almost the same moment, in sharp contrast to Kiba's refusal.
Hearing Naruto agree, Kiba immediately deflated like a punctured ball and sighed helplessly.
"Well... if Naruto says so, go ahead."
He conceded, then turned toward Shino, whom he had squeezed out of his seat.
"Hey, Shino, scoot over a little more. It feels kind of cramped here."
Only after saying that did Kiba belatedly realize that, at some point, Shino Aburame had quietly taken the outermost seat at the very end of the long desk, entirely of his own accord, as though he had anticipated the problem of dividing up the space.
Shino was now watching him silently through his sunglasses. He said nothing, but his posture clearly conveyed, I've already made room.
"Uh..."
Shino's silent response left Kiba at a loss. Seeing that Shino was already right up against the aisle, he was too embarrassed to ask for anything more.
"Okay... never mind, then."
He rubbed his nose sheepishly and, still holding Akamaru, scooted farther over himself to make more room for Hinata.
Shikamaru Nara, who had been slumped lazily over the desk in front of them, found his interest piqued by the subtle commotion behind him. With a rare flicker of energy, he turned to look back at the same time as Choji Akimichi, who was crunching away on potato chips.
Getting involved would be a pain, but quietly sitting back and watching the drama isn't so bad.
That was what Shikamaru thought.
Ino Yamanaka had also keenly noticed the change in the atmosphere.
Her bright eyes moved back and forth between Naruto and the newly seated Hinata, picking up on something unusual.
Naruto seems... pretty familiar with that young lady from the Hyuga Clan, doesn't he?
"Naruto."
At that delicate moment, Sakura Haruno, who was sitting beside Ino, suddenly spoke as though she had summoned an enormous amount of courage. There was a barely perceptible tremor in her voice.
Her voice immediately drew the attention of everyone in the back row, including Hinata, who had just sat down, and Shikamaru and Choji, who had been enjoying the show.
Under everyone's gaze, Sakura's cheeks flushed slightly and her fingers twisted nervously together, but she pressed on. "I... Ino and I would also like to... watch your fight this afternoon. Would that be okay?"
She had deliberately included Ino, as though that gave her a little more confidence.
Though they hadn't discussed it beforehand, Ino was also quite interested in watching Naruto fight.
Naruto smiled and shrugged at the request.
He neither refused nor directly agreed. "I don't mind."
His tone was calm. "But Sasuke was the one who challenged me, and he's arranging the location too.
"So whether spectators are allowed is ultimately up to him. I need to respect his wishes."
He left the decision to the person who had initiated the duel.
Sakura looked toward Ino, troubled.
Everyone knew Naruto was easy to talk to, but Sasuke wasn't. She was a little too afraid to go and ask him by herself.
Seeing the pleading anticipation in her best friend's eyes, Ino softened. She sighed helplessly and stood up with her.
The two girls walked past several rows of seats and approached Sasuke Uchiha in the front row.
Sakura took a deep breath and spoke as gently as she could, with a hint of caution:
"Sasuke... um... can Ino and I watch your fight with Naruto this afternoon?"
Hearing her voice, Sasuke didn't even lift his eyelids. He simply turned his head coldly away, as though even another glance at them would be unnecessary, and dropped a single word in a flat, icy voice:
"Whatever."
It was neither clear permission nor an outright refusal.
Sasuke wanted people to witness him defeating Naruto, but he was only sixty or seventy percent confident he could win.
After his Sharingan had evolved from one eye with a single tomoe and one with two tomoe to two eyes with two tomoe, he hadn't felt the same qualitative leap he had experienced when first using the Sharingan.
It was like the difference between reaching level eleven after changing classes at level ten in a game, and going from level eleven to level twelve.