The two teams were ready to start. Jackie was chosen as the Striker of Team 8 and Sarada was chosen as the Striker for Team 7. Boruto had shown interest but Sarada vetoed that decision immediately.
"Jackie is a great fighter but she's not going to fight fairly against you. She's not as shy when it comes to fighting a girl her age though so I think you should let me beat the sense into her," Sarada grinned with an evil aura.
"Just don't overdo it. The clinic's pretty far from here."
"I wouldn't worry about her too much."
The two girls bowed in respect and headed towards the Taijutsu Zone of the field.
Konohamaru and Moegi sat next to each other as the counter to start the first stage of the match began counting from ten. Moegi turned to Konohamaru.
"Aah, they finally grew up. Hard to imagine there was a time I wasn't sure I was ready to handle a squad of my own," Moegi said as she bit into her chocolate.
"We were once like them. Probably even worse."
"Definitely worse." Konohamaru then noticed that Moegi was actually eating a mint chocolate.
"Care to explain why you're eating toothpaste?"
"I swear I actually hated this thing for a long time. But then you get to buy this for 3 years...I think I'm brainwashed or something. Don't tell Jackie though. The only reason she feels it's okay to take it is because...you know."
"No need to explain. Secret's safe with me."
The fight began. Jackie immediately unlocked the first gate and began her assault, taking Sarada by surprise. Jackie spun her left leg, aiming for Sarada's throat. Sarada unlocked the Sharingan on her Scientific Glasses in a panic and blocked the attack, only to watch Jackie disappear and then reappear on Sarada's left with a hook straight for her cheek. She blocked that as well. Sarada took a step back, geared up her arms, instinctively rising a boxer's defense for the next upper body attack. Jackie appeared in a blur and punished Sarada with a sweep, which almost cost her balance. Her knees buckled a little but the impact wasn't enough to sway her. Jackie was slightly shocked. She knew Sarada had been in enough fights to have a solid stance but that practically felt like she hit a stone pillar. The objective of the Taijutsu round was simple; the first to make the other fall once was the winner. Sarada knew how to take a fall but this time, that wasn't going to be much help for her. Jackie was grateful for her ability to go all out but that didn't mean she was going to underestimate Sarada. Sarada liked that. It meant she didn't have to hold back herself.
Sarada relaxed, took a deep breath and switched stances, opting for free flow. Jackie rushed for a hit, gearing her right leg for Sarada's left rib. Sarada allowed it to connect and went with a feint right hook to Jackie's face, one Jackie tried to block and then Sarada kneed Jackie in the gut, knocking her back and Jackie practically willed her legs to hold back the damage.
"Never seen you do that before. As far as I know, your punch is your pride."
"That hasn't changed. But when you get to fight someone who keeps slapping away most of your heavy hits, you realize there's more to a fight than one decisive blow."
Jackie nodded, opened the second gate and rushed for a new attack. She edged in close and Sarada nearly grabbed her so she evaded in time. That wasn't good enough. Sarada was suddenly behind her and airborne, her fist aimed for Jackie and she evaded that as well. Sarada landed and made some environmental damage. Jackie knew blocking Sarada's punches was futile; even one was enough to break her guard and put her down. Since Sarada could not use her lightning cloak, Jackie knew she still had the speed advantage but it was only barely keeping up. Sarada rushed and shot a flurry of punches and Jackie could not even consider a rebuttal, evading each one on instinct. If she moved, Sarada moved as well. If she charged, Sarada would try to grab her and if she tried to take the time to think, Sarada would charge in with an attack. She was beginning to regret her impulsive start.
Jackie had a few options and most of them would take her down as well. There was no point to the Lotus attack, that would hinder her progress in the next rounds. Opening any more gates would give her a victory but would not allow her to continue the next rounds as effectively. Sarada was not wearing down any time soon. Jackie was tied and she knew it. Her only hope was to lose this round and hope her friends would do the rest. She braced herself and rushed in for what she knew was a clear grapple, and it was. Sarada grabbed her immediately...and then gently threw her to the floor. It still hurt but Jackie was aware Sarada pretty much held back most of her throw.
Jackie was stunned. Cho, Shikaku, Moegi and even Boruto were caught offguard as well. For someone well known to bruise people so thoroughly, her mother practically had patients from her fights every week, this was unheard of. The only people who were not shocked were Konohamaru and Inojin.
"W-what happened to you?" Jackie finally found her voice.
"You want a real fight? Meet me in the Chuunin Exams. We'll fight fair and square then." The center of the room spat out two scrolls; the Heaven and Earth scrolls. Sarada grabbed the Heaven scroll and Jackie woke up and grabbed the Earth scroll.
"Was this your doing, Konohamaru?" Moegi asked.
"I wish I could take the credit for this. But like you said, they've grown."
Sarada had won the first round and thus was to start the second round on the Path of Heaven. In her hands was the Heaven scroll, a brittle artifact that could break in only one hit. She had to know move past the two Goalkeepers to the end of the round for the two points the scroll she had was worth or end up with negative two if she wasn't able to pass. She would start her round first and then Jackie would follow. Her timer began. She considered her foes. Cho was definitely a threat but the real problem was Shikaku, something she noticed the moment the round began.
Shikaku could both use chakra threads and his shadow for his puppet Kakushiken, which had the ability to use tiny wind blades. This was a problem for a number of reasons. One, by using a puppet, Shikaku essentially could do long distance attacks and the blades could be annoying to avoid. Two, by linking his shadow to the puppet, it meant Shikaku was able to still use the puppet to do Shadow Possession Jutsu. Once she was caught in that, he could either temporarily trap her and attack with his puppet or worse, do so long enough for Cho to attack herself.
Cho had inherited Expansion Jutsu but she had always chosen to use Partial Expansion on her arms or legs to do most of her attacks. This was a terrifying battlefield but what made things worse was that Strikers can only use Taijutsu in the entire match and thus her options were limited to evading absolutely everything. Even with her Sharingan, evading Shikaku's shadow, puppet and Cho at the same time was a tall order. The seal only needed one attack to break so she wasn't going to consider fighting back. Shikaku attacked, his puppet charging up wind and spat out the nearly transparent technique. She barely evaded all of Kakushiken's blades and jumped before the shadow caught up to her. She had already noticed Cho in the air, ready to smash her to the ground and did an air somersault, channeled some of her chakra to her legs and landed her feet on Cho's expanded hands, barely cancelling some of the force that was going to hit her, erupting an exposion of air at the impact. She then leapt off towards the ground and landed on her feet. Cho, still airborne, aimed her Expanded hand and like a meteor, rushed for impact. Sarada shook off and evaded at the last second, leaving herself open to a wind blade that tore through her back.
She tossed the seal into the air, immediately clenched her left fist, felt her nails dig deep into her palm, unclenched her fist and caught the seal as it fell, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She then tore her eyes open, her Tool glitching and slowly powering down, feeding chakra instead to her real eye. The wheel on her right eye danced dangerously close to Mangekyou but reverted back to Three-Tomoe. Using her Sharingan, she watched almost in slow-motion as Cho made impact with the ground, splintering chuncks of it off of her, Shikaku's shadow swimming through the debris towards Sarada. Sarada raced and danced around the debris, the puppet's blades and the shadow, gliding with ease past them. She channeled as much power as she could to her legs, jumped with immense pressure and thrusted a large rock towards Shikaku. Cho's eyes widened and she sent herself towards Shikaku's direction, smashing the rock into pieces and dust but blinding Shikaku's sense of direction long enough for Sarada to race to the end of the field.
Shikaku was visibly afraid. "She almost killed me."
Blood was dripping from Sarada's hand but she exhaled confidence, her eyes brimming with determination. The Earth Scroll was only worth one point so Jackie had no good reason to do her side of the round. She had won and crushed the competition and that was worth it.
Moegi looked at the youthful aura that flooded Sarada. "I guess she hasn't really changed that much."
"It's better than nothing."
Boruto smiled and rushed towards Sarada and they did a celebratory handshake before Inojin ruined their parade by pointing out how much Shikaku was still in shock. Sarada then went towards Shikaku and Jackie stepped in front of her, her eyes on the ground.
"I know you want to apologize but you've done enough. Let us handle Shikaku." Sarada gave a weak nod and walked away. Jackie and Cho lifted Shikaku from the ground and walked away with him. Inojin wanted to say something but Boruto stopped him and grabbed Sarada's hand, taking her away from the field.
"You're gonna say something about what I did today?"
"I thought you knew me better than anyone. Shikaku is a shinobi. He'll get over it. I'm wondering if you will too."
Sarada nodded. "Guess I still have a lot to learn about smashing people's heads, huh?"
"What you did when you fought Jackie, that's a win. Definitely better than the person I knew years ago. You'll probably get the hang of it soon enough. For now, let's head to Ichiraku."
"Yeah. You're buying though."
"Huh? You have money too!" And thus began a whole new argument.
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