Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Talking: “…”

Thinking: “…”

Kyuubi: blablabla

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Chapter 17: Show Me

Sakura closed her eyes as Naruto as Sasuke collided. She felt a strong wind hitting her skin, but she still didn’t open her eyes. Even when both Sasuke and Naruto grunted about each others power.

“Sakura, open your eyes.” She heard a voice above her, which she recognised as Tsunade’s.

Sakura shook her head and continued to keep her eyes closed.

“You have to see this fight.” Tsunade said with an stern voice.

Sakura’s eyes snapped open and turned her head fiercely towards Tsunade. “H-how can you say that, Tsunade-sama?! They... they might die!” She tried to stand up, but her legs were still too weak from the drug.

Tsunade grabbed something from her pockets and threw it into Sakura’s lap. It was a tiny bottle with some kind of pill inside.

Sakura looked at Tsunade again; “What’s this?”

Tsunade did not took her eyes from the fight. “Take the pill that’s inside of the bottle. You’ll regain your strength in a few minutes.”

Sakura smiled; “Thank you... master...” She said as she took the tiny pill and swallowed it.

“I hate to admit this... but it seems like Sasuke is stronger.” Jiraiya said, as he, also, followed the fight.

“Yes...” Tsunade replied.

‘Naruto...’ Sakura thought as she forced herself to follow the battle. She saw the Sasuke closed Naruto in and connected his fist hard against Naruto’s cheek.

“Naruto!” Sakura screamed as she stood up. She looked down; it seems like the pill was working.

Naruto landed a few meters away from Sasuke, dust forming in a circle around him. Some blood came out his mouth, and he felt that his cheek was already swollen.

‘Damn...’ He cursed in his thought. ‘Sasuke... he’s strong... Maybe even stronger than-‘

“What’s wrong, idiot? No strength left to fight? Well, that wasn’t much of a fight, was it?” Sasuke’s cold voice cut Naruto’s thoughts.

“Shut up!” Naruto screamed as he quickly stood up and began to run towards him. Sasuke also took is fighting position as he watched Naruto coming closer.

“Kage bunshin no Jutsu!” Naruto screamed as four clones appeared beside Naruto. Two of them began to attack Sasuke.

“Hn, I already know this trick of you, Naruto...” Sasuke said as the two clones jumped up, ready to attack Sasuke.

As soon as he clones came down, Sasuke jumped up. He gave one a kick and the clone disappeared. As soon as Sasuke landed, the second clone did as well. Sasuke reacted fast and kicked the clone into his stomach, which made it disappear as well.

The clones made some dust, but Sasuke knew what came next. He turned around and saw Naruto’s silhouette coming towards him. As soon as the dust disappeared, the clone next to Naruto disappeared as well, leaving Naruto alone with a glowing, swirling ball in his hand.

Sasuke smirked; this was too obvious.

Naruto held his hand with the ball back and sprinted towards Sasuke, who just stood still.

“Rasengan!” Naruto screamed as he lunged his arms towards Sasuke. Sasuke still didn’t move.

‘Why isn’t he moving away?!’ Sakura thought as she watched the fight.

There was a loud bang from above as pieces of stone fell down. When the dust cleared, everyone saw that there was a hole in the roof.

“Orochimaru-sama...” Kabuto said as Orochimaru smirked.

“Yes, I already trained him well...”

“T-that can’t be...!” Jiraiya said as he saw everything happening.

Naruto and Sasuke didn’t move; Sasuke had dodged the attack by simple grabbing Naruto’s arm with the Rasengan and pushed it away, in this case, towards the roof.

Sasuke still held Naruto’s arm, tighter and tighter. Naruto looked at Sasuke with his eyes wide.

“Why...” Naruto said, shock heard in his voice.

“Because I’m stronger than you...” Sasuke said as he lunged his fist towards Naruto’s stomach, which made Naruto spit out blood. Sasuke still held him as Naruto’s legs gave in. He was breathing hard.

“You are so weak.” Sasuke said as he kicked him away, making him roll over a few times before he lay still.

“Naruto!” Sakura screamed as she ran towards him. But she was stopped by Tsunade.

“Sakura! This is not your fight. Naruto will make it...”

“B-but this is all my fault!” Sakura said, on the verge of tears as she saw Naruto lying there. “If I hadn’t been so weak and fought back, this never would have happened!”

“Sakura! This fight was inevitable, even if you weren’t captured.” Tsunade said, getting angry that Sakura blamed herself for this.

“S-Sakura-chan...” Naruto’s voice said softly. Sakura quickly looked towards Naruto, who was slowly getting up. When he stood up, she saw him smirking, while wiping the blood from his mouth.

He continued, “I’ll... never give up! Even when I’m like this, even if Sasuke tells me I’m weak, I’ll never give up!” He gave her one of his big smiles that told her that everything is going to be alright, even if his smile also held pain.

“Naruto...” Sakura whispered. She suddenly heard chuckles coming from Sasuke. Chuckles that would give you chills.

“You would do anything for the ones you love, right Naruto? That’s what makes you weak.. Love makes you weak.” Sasuke said, as he also looked at Sakura. “Having people like her close to you will only make you weak.”

This made Sakura angry. “You are wrong, Sasuke. Love gives you strength, darkness makes you weak. You can learn from love, you can fail because of the darkness.” Sakura held her hand close to her heart. “I love everyone and that gives me strength. I... still love you.. Sasuke.”

“Shut up!” Sasuke said as he ran towards her.

“Sakura-chan!” Naruto screamed as he saw that she didn’t move.

Everything happened in a flash; Sasuke was stopped because of Tsunade and Jiraiya held him back with kunai’s while Kabuto and Orochimaru were around Tsunade and Jiraiya, also holding them back with kunai’s.

“You leave Sakura alone, Sasuke. This is your fight with Naruto only.” Tsunade said.

“You’ll only disgrace yourself if you attack others outside the battlefield.” Jiraiya added.

“Then, I’ll suggest we go back to where we’ve been?” Kabuto said, holding his kunai close to Jiraiya.

Orochimaru licked his lips with his long tongue, “I agree. It would be a disgrace for us if we were meddling with this fight, won’t it?” He grinned.

Sasuke closed his eyes and nodded. He jumped up and landed on his old spot in the battlefield. Kabuto and Orochimaru also retreated back to their places.

“We could have ended it, Orochimaru-sama...” Kabuto said softly.

“Don’t worry Kabuto, maybe that time will come. But first, I want to see how Sasuke will do.”

“But, the way it looks now, Sasuke-kun is on the winning hand.”

“Yes, but did you forget, Kabuto? I want Naruto-kun’s Kyuubi... and if it the rest of the fight goes like it goes now, we will get to see the Kyuubi soon enough...” Orochimaru smirked again.

“As you wish, Orochimaru-sama.” Kabuto said, as the reflection of his glasses hid his eyes. ‘Sasuke will have to do better then this.’

Naruto was still in shock about what just happened. But he saw that Sakura and the others were ok. He looked at Sasuke and noticed that his vision went blurry.

‘Shit, I can’t have this now...’ Naruto thought as he rubbed his eyes. He still saw a bit blurry.

“What wrong, idiot? Feeling a little weak? I had more of a challenge in our last fight.” Sasuke said, but strangely, he was not attacking.

‘What isn’t he attacking?’ Jiraiya thought. ‘He has the advantage when Naruto is like this...’

“Our... last challenge?” Naruto replied. ‘But that is when I used Kyuubi’s power to fight.’ He looked at Sakura, who was looking with a worried face towards the battle. Naruto shook his head. ‘I can never use Kyuubi’s power again... I hurt Sakura again... I won’t be able to control it.’

Why not just do it, partner...? Kyuubi’s voice echoed in his head.

‘Stay out of this...’

We could... destroy him.

“Shut up!” Naruto said as his blue chakra swirled around him.

Sasuke smirked, “Now we’re talking.” He said as he prepared himself for the second round.

Just a little of my chakra, partner... You could easily win this battle. Let me help you...

“I will do this on my own! I don’t want to hurt the ones around me because of you!” Naruto screamed again as he charged at Sasuke.

He was faster, he was stronger. This time, Sasuke was slower. Before Sasuke cold react, was Naruto already behind him. He kicked Sasuke in the back which send him flying. Sasuke cursed under his breath and regained his balance in mid-air.

‘This power is not Kyuubi’s...’ Sasuke thought. ‘How did he...’ But before Sasuke could finish his thoughts, Naruto came dashing at him again. Sasuke was too late to dodge Naruto’s punch, so he lifted his arms before his face to protect himself.

The impact was hard; both of them were shoved aside because of the blow. This didn’t stopped Naruto.

He made a hand sign; “Kage bunshin no Jutsu!” Again, four clones where created.

‘Another Rasengan attack?’ Sasuke thought. ‘How cliché...’

But he was wrong. Naruto created more clones as they all attacked Sasuke. There were too many too handle, even for Sasuke. While he was fighting with clones before him, he did not noticed the ones behind him.

“Let’s go!” Naruto told his clones as one of them kicked Sasuke up high. Sasuke had no time to regain himself as Naruto began his attack.

“U!”

“Zu!”

“Ma!”

“Ki!”

The final blow; “Naruto Rendan!” With a huge power, he kicked Sasuke down. When Sasuke connected with the ground, he made a huge crater.

Naruto jumped back, breathing heavily.

“Orochimaru-sama...” Kabuto said, somewhat confused about the sudden power from Naruto. He was also shocked that Naruto turned the tables around so quickly.

“Do not worry, Kabuto. Naruto-kun did not use the Kyuubi’s chakra. Which means he’s now almost out of his own chakra. And Sasuke-kun...” He turned his head towards the huge crater Naruto had made with his attack.

Sasuke slowly stood up. He had some scratches and blood was running down his mouth. He was also breathing hard, but it seemed he was ok. He was more shocked about the power Naruto just shown.

He looked at Naruto, who was breathing heavily. He smirked; “Looks like this power was only once. He used up all his chakra.”

‘Shit...’ Naruto thought, ‘I’m almost out of chakra. I don’t think I can do the same attack again.’

“Naruto...” Sasuke’s cold voice echoed trough the room. You could feel the tension rise.

‘What’s this... huge chakra...?’ Sakura thought. ‘It’s the same as... with the chuunin exam. His bruise!’

Sasuke was now covered with black tattoos. Purple chakra was surrounding him, as if he held back this whole time.

He grinned, “Play time is over.”

To Be Continued