The next fight, Gaara vs Ino, ended rather anticlimatic since Ino simply forfeited the moment the fight started. Yuna approved of this decision. Gaara was very unstable and it could be very dangerous for a “normal” shinobi to fight him. Naruto had, apparently, told Ino about Kurama to convince her, that fighting Gaara is not a good idea. Naruto and Kurama apparently slipped up during the event and revealed more than necessary, but Yuna decided not to bother with that.
The next fight was rather interesting to Yuna. Shikamaru still insisted on his “I don’t want to hit women” policy, but this time, his opponent, Temari, actually knew what she was doing and wasn’t so easily tricked. After a rather interesting game of cat and mouse, Shikamaru finally managed to trick Temari by using multiple small parachutes that he made out of his jacket and a few Kunai and caught her with his shadow bind. Moments later, he gave up, claiming that he was out of chakra.
Yuna could only shake her head when she saw that.
“Out of chakra my a**. He is just a lazy bum and doesn’t want to fight anymore. Well, his next opponent would be Gaara, so I guess that is a good thing.”
Naruto and Hinata, who were standing next to Yuna couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Hehe, he might still be promoted to chunin. Those strategies were pretty crazy. I don’t think I could ever come up with something like that.”
Yuna and Hinata both nodded their heads in agreement.
“Yeah, he will probably become a chunin. Rather than a frontline fighter, he will probably take a commander role in the future. Guess he will be really annoyed that he got promoted, haha.”
Naruto and Hinata nodded their heads with a smirk on their faces.
“The next fight will be between Yuna Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha. Please come down into the arena.”
“Guess I’ve got to go. This shouldn’t take too long.”
Naruto and Hinata nodded their heads in agreement. Hinata gave Yuna a quick kiss with slightly pink cheeks and then Yuna made her way into the arena with a satisfied smirk on her face. She wasn’t sure whether Sasuke would show up at all, but since Kakashi was involved she decided to give him some extra time by taking the normal way into the arena instead of just jumping down.
While walking, two people stood in her way. Yuna glanced at them and when she noticed that their chakra was around low chunin level she decided to ignore them. These two, however, blocked her way and didn’t want to let her through.
“Hehe, little girl I have some bad news for you. Our client bet quite a bit of money on you forfeiting your fi…”
This was as far as he got before Yuna slapped a paralyzing seal on their foreheads. While they were falling, Yuna grabbed both of them at the gruff of their neck and started dragging them with her.
“Seriously? Who do these small-fry think they are? What makes them think they can run rampant inside Konoha?”
After a few more moments of walking, she reached the entrance of the arena and immediately tossed the two people towards Genma, causing him to raise his eyebrow in question.
“These two wanted me to forfeit immediately because their client bet a lot of money on it. Might wanna investigate that. I don’t think there would be a lot of people who would put money on something like that.”
Genma nodded his head and not even 2 minutes later, there was a commotion in the spectator ranks. A thin man wearing gaudy clothes was apprehended by an ANBU while flailing around and cursing everything that can be cursed. Yuna could only shake her head at that.
“What an idiot. This is a promotion exam for Konoha’s military forces. He is actively trying to manipulate the outcome and might even stifle the growth of Konoha’s shinobi with it. Doing something like this could probably be considered a form of treason, huh.”
Since Yuna said those words out loud, everyone could hear them. The man, who was fiercely resisting up until now, froze up, while his face became pale-white. Seeing the man be easily carried away, Yuna couldn’t help but chuckle.
“So easy. Throwing around words like “stifling growth” and “treason” is still the best way to make an idiot shut up. Might as well have thrown in “harming potential” while I was at it.”
Moments later, another uproar went through the crowd, since Yuna, yet again, played a trick on them. Yuna, meanwhile, couldn’t help but laugh out loud when she saw all the people glaring at her.
“Hahaha, so amusing! Oh well, guess we should start. Isn’t that right, Sasuke?”
As soon as she said that, Kakashi and Sasuke appeared inside the arena. Kakashi looked around sheepishly, before looking at Genma.
“We are not too late, are we?”
Genma shook his head in denial.
“No, Yuna here was busy messing with the crowd so no one bothered looking at the time.”
Kakashi looked at the crowd at could see a lot of people glaring at Yuna. Although he had no clue what was going on, he still nodded his head and disappeared from the arena, and reappeared in the spectator stands next to Sakura.
“How is Sasuke-kun, Kakashi-sensei. How is…that.”
“Don’t worry about that, Sakura. Everything is under control.”
Sakura was clearly relieved when she heard that, but there is still something else she would like to ask.
“Err, Kakashi-sensei, can Sasuke-kun…win?”
Kakashi eye-smiled at her and answered.
“What do you think?”
The scene of Yuna basically splitting a good chunk of the forest in half with a single jutsu replayed inside her head. She clenched her fist, took a deep breath, and unclenched them.
“That is impossible, isn’t it, Kakashi-sensei.”
Although Kakashi was surprised that Sakura just admitted that her beloved Sasuke will lose, he immediately nodded his head.
“Indeed. I did what I could, but the gap is simply too big. Truth be told, even I am not confident in beating her when she uses everything she has. Well, truth be told, I don’t even know what it means for her to use “everything she has”.”
Sakura’s eyes almost popped out of her sockets when she heard that, but after thinking about it for a moment, it made sense. Although she was unconscious during Yuna’s fight with Lee, she at least saw the aftermath of it and heard other people talk about it. During the fight, Yuna apparently used only taijutsu, yet what she has seen from her is incredible powerful ninjutsu. Despite having shown a lot of power already, she clearly hasn’t shown all of it yet.
Sakura couldn’t help but be curious about Yuna. Just how strong is she? At what level is she, when she uses everything she has? What does it even mean for her to use everything she has?
Yuna, meanwhile, couldn’t help but feel weird.
‘Why the hell does Sasuke look so confident? Has he managed to erase his own memory about my fight with Lee? There is no way he could be delusional enough to believe that he could even begin to participate in a fight of that scale.’
[In that case, you are truly underestimating the Uchiha. If it is about being delusional about one’s own strength, then it is pretty much impossible to beat the Uchiha.]
Before Yuna could answer, Sasuke started to speak.
“Hehe, I have finally found where you get all that strength from.”
‘What do you think, Kurama. Has he finally understood that hard training is the best way to get stronger?’
[Answer. Chance that individual: Sasuke Uchiha has realized that is: 0%.]
‘…Really, Kurama?’
[Hey! Don’t judge me! I thought I would mix it up a bit.]
‘*Sigh* Whatever.’
“Ohh? Please tell me.”
“I have found out what is sealed inside you and that you can use its strength for yourselves.”
Yuna raised an eyebrow and glanced at Kakashi, who couldn’t help but flinch a little when he met Yuna’s eyes. Yuna moved her lips and spelled “You owe me one” and moments later she got a nod from Kakashi.
“Haha, indeed, that is part of my strength, so?”
“How about we make this fair, and don’t use any external power? I won’t use my seal and you won’t use that power.”
‘Wow, did he just compare Orochimaru’s crappy seal with your power? What a joke.’
A mischievous smile appeared on Yuna’s face before answering.
“Hehe, I don’t mind, but you should realize that that little hickey can’t compare to what I have, so how about you increase your stake a little more.”
Sasuke’s face grew ugly when Yuna called the seal a hickey but didn’t say anything about that for now. Besides that, he did agree that having a bijuu sealed inside you is a bigger advantage than just having Orochimaru’s seal. So, it made sense for him to give Yuna a bigger price. He was confident in winning anyway, so it didn’t matter.
“What do you want?”
“Hehe, after I win, you have to stay henged into a woman for the rest of the month. That should be fun, haha.”
Sasuke’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets when he heard that. He clenched and unclenched his fist while contemplating what to do. It would probably be humiliating to stay transformed as a woman the whole time, but it was not like he had to leave his clan compound during that time. Additionally, he was confident that he could win if Yuna didn’t use the Kyuubi’s chakra.
“Fine! I agree.”
A smirk appeared on Yuna’s face, that sent shivers down Sasuke’s spine. He already regretted agreeing to this bet before the fight even started. But there was nothing he could do about that now. He would just have to win, then everything will be fine.
