Capítulo 14: Close Call
Kiba stared at Ryo as they waited for Iruka to give the signal to start the battles. Since there were only a few fights left, they would now take place one at a time, with Ryo vs. Kiba being the first. All the other students formed a circle around them, observing intently. Iruka-sensei raised one arm and lowered it after a few seconds with the command.
- Begin! -
Kiba assumed the taijutsu stance of his family, resembling a true dog with both hands on the ground. As soon as the signal was given, he lunged forward with great speed, utilizing the traction he had while running on "four legs." Seeing this, Ryo reacted quickly, but not quickly enough—or so he thought. In fact, his reaction had been exact, but a cut still appeared in the middle of his chest, with four scratch marks from Kiba's fingers.
"Damn! I didn't expect this. I've been fighting people with more direct styles all this time, and the Inuzuka style is something beastly. I didn't train on how to fight against an animal!"
Indeed, that was the point. Kiba's strike would have been easily dodged by Ryo if it were a regular punch, but Kiba's fighting style led him to attack with open hands, and his nails managed to get deep in Ryo's skin. Ryo now had a cut that was two centimeter deep and five wide, oozing a good amount of blood but not at a worrying level.
However, this didn't deter him. After the training with Kenji, he had learned to endure a basic level of pain and injuries. Reacting quickly as Kiba leaped towards him for another strike, Ryo found himself beside Kiba, who sailed past him after the cut on his chest.
Kiba, however, didn't expect Ryo to react so quickly and counterattack in the meantime. He saw Ryo's knee rising towards him, aiming at the right side of his body. With no time to defend, Kiba felt the impact on his ribs as he was thrown backward, spinning, and eventually landing on the ground on all fours, one hand resting on the right side of his body.
Seeing that he had also managed to hit Kiba squarely, Ryo rushed towards him as Kiba recoiled, throwing dirt in Ryo's eyes. Ryo instinctively raised his hand to shield his eyes from the dust, sensing the danger, and leaped backward. Along with his quick reaction, he saw the dust being torn apart by Kiba's hands, attempting an opportunistic attack.
As the dust settled, both were breathing heavily. Despite the short duration, the combat was still intense. Ryo had four large cuts on his chest, while Kiba likely had some broken ribs.
Feeling his chest burning and throbbing from the blow, Ryo knelt on the ground. Kiba didn't miss the opportunity and launched himself towards his opponent to finish the match. However, inches before reaching Ryo, he felt something strange. Ryo opened a slight smile as Kiba flew towards him.
"He fell for the feint!"
With one leg on the ground, Ryo quickly raised the other like a spear towards Kiba, who was struck forcefully by Ryo's kick as he had already launched himself to attack. This caused all the force of the moment to rebound against Kiba, sending him flying away unconscious.
Getting up and seeing Kiba's condition, Ryo wiped the sweat off his forehead, releasing a light sigh. "Kiba fought like a beast. He must still be trying to master the family's taijutsu style. I don't remember him being so aggressive... Well, except in the fight against Naruto."
Soon, Iruka announced the winner of the fight, and some medical ninjas attended to both Kiba and Ryo to heal their injuries. The cuts on Ryo's chest were quickly healed with medical ninjutsu, sparking Ryo's interest in healing techniques.
"I want to learn how to heal myself. If I receive a fatal blow and manage to escape, I'll die if I can't heal myself." He pondered on this, knowing that someday in the distant future, it would truly save his life.
The next match was the canonical battle: Naruto vs. Sasuke. Looking at the two heading to the center, Ryo gave Naruto a thumbs-up, who was as enthusiastic as ever.
"Go for it, Naruto. You'll beat him someday, but I don't think it'll be today."
As Ryo thought, Naruto moved much better than he had imagined, but still ended up losing the match. Without any major injuries or excitement, Sasuke trapped Naruto with a move that forced Naruto to forfeit the match to avoid breaking his arm.
- The winner, Uchiha Sasuke! -
As Iruka announced this, Ryo looked towards Sae. She noticed his gaze and gave a faint smile before walking towards the center. Since Sasuke wasn't injured, they could start the fight right away. Ryo was curious about how the battle between the two Uchihas would unfold.
Iruka announced the start of the match, and the two Uchihas launched themselves at each other. Since their fighting styles were the same, the combat consisted of many repeated movements, with one attacking and the other defending, already knowing each other's moves. However, as the fight progressed, Sasuke slowly began to lose the exchange, and after 5 minutes, he lost the match. However, he didn't seem to be in a bad mood, as Sae was also an Uchiha.
- Uchiha Sae is the winner! Let's take a 30-minute break for her to rest, and then we'll go to the final match between Uchiha Sae and Shimura Ryo, - Iruka announced, and everyone relaxed a bit, knowing they had some time before the final fight began.
"I have some time, the injury to my chest has already been bandaged and healed to a certain extent, but the medical ninja said that if possible, I shouldn't drag out the fight too long, as the wound could reopen. Not that I have any choice; if I go easy, Sae will know, and I don't think she would be happy if I deliberately let her win."
Ryo was shirtless during all this, his chest wrapped in several white bandages. After some time passed, he stood up, put on his shirt, and then walked towards the center. He was excited about the fight, even though it didn't really mean anything or was mortal. He wanted to see how much he had improved with Kenji's training. For the last three days, Kenji hadn't let Sae and Ryo train together.
Facing each other, with Iruka in the middle, he could sense that this would be a higher-level fight, and he was prepared to intervene if anything unexpected happened. Iruka looked at the two and then announced the start of the fight, disappearing from the middle of the arena and appearing beside the other students.
Both Sae and Ryo charged towards each other, each throwing a punch Ryo with his right, Sae with her left. At the same time, they dodged each other's blows. Followed by a leg lift, they ended up kicking each other, then jumping backward.
Feeling his chest starting to throb again, Ryo knew that with these two movements, his body was already beginning to strain, especially the cuts he had received. But that didn't stop his momentum. He quickly moved towards Sae to deliver a downward diagonal kick, causing her to duck and counterattack with a sweep to try to knock Ryo down.
Realizing this, Ryo then jumped with the leg that was on the ground, throwing it backward while the first kick began to touch the ground. The second kick already made another arc in the air, aiming at Sae's head, who narrowly avoided it once again. Seeing that Ryo briefly turned his back to her, Sae threw a punch at Ryo's side, which he couldn't dodge in time.
"Damn!"
The punch hit Ryo's side, sending him backwards and making him roll on the ground until he could regain his footing and then jump back, but he placed his hand on his chest, which had started to turn red again. The pain from the punch and the reopening cuts made Ryo sweat coldly. He felt weakness in his knee, but he managed to stay on his feet, gritting his teeth as he launched another offensive. And once again, he was countered.
However, this time he managed to dodge, moving inside Sae's attack. Ryo used the momentum to keep moving forward while Sae's punch grazed his face. In the next moment, Ryo collided his shoulder with Sae's chest, throwing her backward with the impact. She hadn't expected him to use his body as an impact object for the blow, and of course, she wasn't using the Sharingan yet.
The Sharingan wasn't against the rules, just like the Byakugan wasn't, but it gave a significant advantage to the user. As Sae got up from the ground with a backward leap, Ryo could see the Sharingan activated in her eyes. He smiled as he raised his arms.
-- I give up. --
She looked at him with a surprised expression, but then noticed the blood dripping from Ryo's chest. His wound had reopened and seemed worse than before, perhaps from the punch he had received to his side and then falling backward.
- The winner, Uchiha Sae! - Iruka thought, "From Sae, I expected a higher-level Taijutsu, but from Ryo? And It seemed like his style was similar to the Uchihas. Young Ryo is more interesting than he appears in the class and has a good talent for close combat." He signaled for the medical ninjas to help Ryo, who now knelt on the ground, breathing heavily with his hands on his chest.
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