Chapter 24: Challenged to a Duel

In my room, I meditated.

Meditation was something important to improve skills, mental strength, and chakra.

I particularly enjoyed meditating in the silence of the night with the window of my room open while the silence prevailed.

When I meditated, my consciousness sometimes reached a mysterious state of 'emptiness.' In this state, I felt free from worries; a great pleasure - at least for me who liked to put aside all my thoughts sometimes...

Minutes turned into hours, after a long time meditating, I came out of my meditative state.

"Book."

Opening the book as soon as it appeared before me, I went to my page and saw a small progress and gave a gentle smile.

Stretching, I finally decided to sleep for the next few hours that remained.

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The next morning, I woke up a few minutes before the familiar sound echoed in my mind, and soon the book appeared before me.

[43 Weekly Coins Credited]

'With this, I now have 128 weekly coins... By Sunday, at this rate, I should be able to get 250 coins.'

I understood that this value was so high because of my efforts in guiding my classmates. Being close to graduation, their requests for advice became more constant.

'Sunday, I will try to fuse a Yin-Yang talisman with a Lightning Clone talisman again.'

After a brief moment of contemplation, I opened the door to my room.

Outside the room, I felt the presence of my parents and sister on the first floor.

In the air, I smelled delicious bacon.

'This smell...' I thought as I walked towards the bathroom: 'It must be Kumo who is cooking.'

Later, upon arriving in the living room, I saw that my previous guess was correct, it was Kumo who was cooking today. However, she was not alone, mother was beside her helping as an assistant and giving tips here and there from time to time.

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"Aizen, I challenge you to a duel!"

Aizen had barely arrived in the classroom and was greeted by the loud voice, with Naruto pointing his index finger at him, trying to strike a cool pose.

"Again?" Aizen asked, calmly. His kind eyes made him seem lovable, hard to hate.

Seeing him like that, Naruto stumbled over his words: "Yes, no, I mean... Ahhh, anyway, Aizen, this time it will be different, this time I will come out victorious!"

"Naruto, you are loud!" Sakura exclaimed loudly, but soon her voice changed 180 degrees the moment she looked at Aizen and said in a sweet voice: "Aizen, good morning~ Don't mind this idiot, he needs at least 100 years to be able to challenge you. No matter how many times you beat him, he never learns."

"Sakura..." Naruto muttered, crestfallen.

"Shut up, Naruto!" Sakura glared aggressively at him.

"..." Naruto mumbled inaudibly as he became more dejected.

"Haha, Sakura, don't be so hard on him." With a kind smile, Aizen said so far, making Naruto look at him with hopeful eyes, but his next words made him clench his fists: "Although he's a bit annoying challenging me all the time. It's good that he doesn't get demotivated, even though he has never been able to beat me."

"Aizen, you..." Naruto was speechless at this sudden jab.

"Idiot." Someone said not too loudly nor too softly.

Naruto heard this, turned around, and shouted, "Sasuke, who are you calling an idiot!?"

With cold indifference, Sasuke said with his stoic expression, "You."

Rolling up his sleeves, Naruto began to walk forcefully towards Sasuke, "You bastard, today's the day I end you. Sasuke, let's go outside now!"

Standing up, Sasuke surprised everyone when he said, "Yes, let's. I really do want to teach you a lesson."

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This development caught me a little off guard. Not by Naruto's reaction, since I expected him to act impulsively, but Sasuke's reaction surprised me.

"Aizen, aren't you going to do anything?" Sakura asked.

Smiling slightly, I replied with a question, "Why should I?"

"Why..." She herself seemed not to know the answer.

"Haha, don't be like that, I understand why you wanted me to interfere, but you know what?" I touched her head, rubbing it a bit before pulling my hand away when I saw her blush.

Putting both hands on top of her head, Sakura looked at me, but lowered her head again. However, curiosity still made her ask, "Yes?"

I smiled a bit, "This kind of conflict is sometimes good. Especially the rivalry they have. After all, both of their strengths are very close."

"Isn't Sasuke stronger than Naruto?" Ino, who approached us, asked, then added, "By the way, good morning, Aizen."

"Mm, good morning to you too, Ino," I said, "And, to answer your question. Yes, to some extent, Sasuke has an advantage over Naruto, but Naruto is more tenacious, meaning, if he can prolong the fight against Sasuke, there's a chance he could win."

"Naruto has a chance to win?" Kiba, who overheard, seemed to have misheard as he exclaimed, jumping from his chair.

Of course, I understood his doubt, after all, although neither of them has been able to beat me in a duel, whether in strength or skills, Sasuke was the second strongest in the class among the boys.

However, if you asked who the second strongest person was, many would say it's Hinata. Despite that, she doesn't care much about competitions like these, preferring to follow her own way of being: kind, but determined when needed.

About that, I had to agree. Although I recognize that competitions and rivalries have their importance, they are not universal, after all, each person is different from the others.

It didn't take long for Professor Iruka to arrive, however, this didn't cool things down for Naruto and Sasuke, because today was the day when training would be outside, which means it would be possible to challenge someone to a duel under the supervision of Professor Iruka.

Just as I and everyone else were expecting, Naruto exclaimed when we arrived at the training area, "Teacher Iruka!"

"Speak, Naruto," he looked at him with a touch of impatience.

Naruto said in his loud voice, "I would like to challenge Sasuke to a duel!"

"I accept," Sasuke replied even before Iruka agreed to it.

Iruka looked at the two and sighed, "Okay, a little early, but let's start with the duel between Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha!"

With his words, everyone had a different kind of reaction, but something they had in common was releasing an excited "wow."

Although almost no one seemed to believe in Naruto's victory, I could see that they were excited about their duel. After all, Naruto has been showing growth since he started training with my subtle training tips.

Of course, there were also many boos from some girls who were Sasuke fangirls and cursed at Naruto.

"Things are getting exciting," I said with a small smile.

Beside me, Ino sighed as she put her hand to her forehead, "Aizen, only you." She sighed.

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Please, don't forget to drop at least 1 Power Stone, it motivates me a lot!

Chapter 32 is already released on Pa treon!

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