Duels

- "Makira, you can come out and introduce yourself, tell us about your hobbies and who you want to become," said the teacher, carefully examining the boy from head to toe.

Standing near the board, he was met by a large number of eyes directed at him, but the boy remained as impassive as ever. He had prepared his speech for a long time and therefore said without much hesitation: - "Hi, my name is Makira and I'm from an ordinary family. My favorite activity is traveling and training. My dream is to become the strongest ninja."

Sitting in their seats, the children looked strangely at the boy who had a strange appearance and a detached look, which showed that he cared little about getting to know any of them at all. The girls looked at him with a look of pity with the words: - "A beautiful, but too spoiled face, poor thing..", and the teenagers were mocking because the boy risked saying such nonsense as becoming the strongest ninja, which was simply unrealistic for an ordinary person, unless you are from someany clan.

- "Very interesting, well, have a seat, the next one is Minato Namikaze." - said the teacher, continuing to call everyone in turn.

As he sat down in his seat, he looked at his friend with a smile on his face. And so every new student of the academy was called. Everyone talked about their dreams, aspirations, someone said that the academy was just a way for him to defend himself, someone wanted to become an outstanding ninja, but Makira did not pay attention to this in any way, as he was completely focused on the teacher, hoping to suck all the knowledge out of him.

So passed the first day at the academy. Acquaintance, familiarization with the rules of the academy, an excursion where they were shown a training ground and other classrooms where lessons will be held in the future.

The next day, when the alarm clock rang, Makira got up from his bed as usual and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash. After having breakfast with Hiro, he went towards the academy, where they were already met by the teacher.

- "Good morning everyone, today we will have a little sparring among ourselves, so let's all go to the playground and line up." - leading the children towards the playground, everyone lined up according to the list that the teacher compiled and began to talk about the conditions of the duel.

- "You are forbidden to use various techniques and combat equipment. Our fights will take place in the taijutsu frame, where everyone will show what your physical body is capable of, without using the chakra. Since some of you live in ordinary families, you probably have not been trained from an early age, unlike the guys who are in clans such as Akimichi, Nara, Yamanaka, Uchiha, etc." - having said the rules and explained to us the order of fights and our rivals, we began to wait for our turn.

The first two guys came out, consisting of the Hugo and Uchiha clan, they had arrogant faces showing their attitudes towards others, but during the whole fight no one was able to get the upper hand over their opponent.

Going nose to nose, the boy from the Hugo clan found a good moment to attack with the help of which he was able to knock out his opponent, while he himself fell to the ground due to severe fatigue, to which the teacher agreed to give victory to the Hyuga clan even though he was completely exhausted.

The following duels were similar to each other, mostly people from clans took the victory, and ordinary children tried to keep up with them, but the difference was palpable if you compare a child who has been used to fighting and training since childhood and one who just entered the path of the ninja only yesterday.

- "Next, Shikaku Nara and Makira," the teacher shouted, writing down the results from the last duel. Standing in the middle of the playground, they stood in a greeting position and, at the command of the teacher, began their movements.

Standing in position and not moving, Makira looked at the running Shikaku who was more active than in class and did not show his usual bored face, instead it showed determination to take victory in this duel.

Bumping into each other. Shukaku swung, hit towards the face, leaving a blurry movement. However, Makira deftly dodged, a surprised face appeared on his face.

Seeing that his opponent was surprised, he struck again, with a strong turn with his foot millimeters from Makira's face, causing his heart to shudder painfully... Seeing that the opponent was not weak, he decided to use all his strength. The next day, he constantly dodged, trying to find the right moment to attack.

Seeing an opportunity, Makira quickly rushed in front of grabbing the opponent's hand during the strike and threw Shikaku over himself with all his strength, who was shocked by the unexpected attack this time.

Lying on top of Shikaku's body, Makira hit the ground next to Shikaku's face with all his might, as if telling him to give up. Seeing that the outcome of the fight was decided, the teacher announced the winner: - "The winner is Makira, the next is Minato Namikaze and Inoichi Yamanaka"

Passing by Minato, he raised his fist and Makira beat him off and said with a smile: - "Don't lose, we still have a draw, I'm waiting for you in the next stages," to which Minato turned with a confident smile and replied: - "Eternal rivals can only lose in duels among themselves.."

The fight took place in a similar way, as it was with Makira and Shikaku, the two fought a very good fight, but Minato clearly surpassed his opponent in reflexes and impact strength. Inoichi, on the other hand, tried to keep his distance, since he was not his opponent in a head-on collision and tried to act on finding the right moment for an unexpected attack.

But thanks to all his training, Minato quickly knocked out the opponent without giving him a chance to use tricks with him, which in his opinion are unlikely to be able to disorient him during the fight.

The second stage should begin soon, where half were eliminated, and half were preparing for new fights, where the subsequent rounds for Makira were relatively simple, with the exception of children from large clans, where there was a noticeable difference between a simple child and someone who had been raised by a ninja since childhood.

All the children had different emotions about the victories of Minato and Makira, as they both clearly said during yesterday's performance that they wanted to become great shinobi, but no one paid any attention to it, but at the sight of their skill in taijutsu, they completely swallowed their words. Even some girls began to look with loving eyes in the direction of a couple who were constantly in the vicinity of each other.

By the time all the fights were over, there was a final round left, where the duel between the two best will take place. Looking each other in the face, they just grinned and went out into the middle of the playground waiting for the start of the fight, which in their opinion will decide who is the best at the moment among them.