They'd reached the far curb, and the granny accepted her groceries back with a fond pat on the jounin's cheek, then turned to climb the stairs into the house. Kakashi looked up the street and waved happily to his incredulous students, then turned back to the stairwell in alarm. He rushed in, then a few moments later returned carrying the old woman, and sprinted away back down the street toward the hospital.
Naruto fell over in shock. Sakura and Sakura groaned. Sasuke snorted in irritation, shook loose from his female team mate's anaconda-like grasp, and pushed off from the railing of the bridge, coming to stand in front of Naruto.
He smirked for a moment, then said, "Looks like we still have some time... I also want to fight you, Naruto. I only want to answer one question: Am I strong?"
Jumping back up, the orange-suited genin laughed and crowed, "Yeah! Yeah! I'll kick your mopey ass, dattebayo! Come on!" He ran to the unfinished end of the bridge, where the morning fog trailed across it in wisps. In the stands nearby, the five hokages looked up from where they were arguing with Jiraya and Orochimaru, while Kabuto tried to console the wailing, kimono-clad python the snake sennin had brought as a date.
More importantly, Sasuke was already there, waiting in the taijutsu stance he'd copied from the Fuzzy-Brows. His eyes burned an ominous blood-red, the three tomoe spinning dizzyingly as he stared down Naruto with an arrogant smirk.
The crowd in the gallery across from the kages' box cheered as Naruto formed a cross-fingered hand seal - Iruka, Tazuna and Inari, Idate, Isaribi, the rest of the Rookie Nine as well, they'd all been saved by that move at one time or another. "TAIJUU KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!" they shouted, in unison with the orange-clad genin.
The bridge was suddenly swarming with Naruto clones, in a ring around Sasuke, perched on stacked building supplies, even hanging from the trusswork of the nearby crane like an over sized set of monkey-bars, the force of the dissipating chakra smoke blowing away the last of the fog from Kirigakure no Jutsu.
The referee, Zabusa, was less pleased, however, shifting the kunai he'd gripped in his mouth and complaining, "Don't get so excited, I haven't told you to start yet. Shaa, whatever," he grumbled, forging a path through the orange-clad crowd until he was a reasonable distance from the center. "Go ahead, then!"
With a chorus of yells, the Naruto swarm pulled out kunai and attacked, some leaping and throwing their blades, others charging recklessly in to attack directly. The dark-haired avenger's smirk just widened as he dispatched one after another with precise blows, sometimes simply dodging a thrown kunai to let it strike a clone out of his reach or behind his back, until they'd dwindled to a ring three or four clones deep all around.
(Posted Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:24)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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