In the center of the arena, Naruto stood behind Kiba at a very close distance. Kiba could even feel the hairs on the back of his neck stirred by Naruto's breath.
"Sorry, Kiba. Although I really wanted to properly witness your Ninjutsu, this is a match. Matches are unreasonable."
With that, he threw a punch.
Twisting from the waist to exert force, conducted through the shoulder blade to the elbow joint, and then to the fist, the kinetic energy of the entire body was compressed and then released.
The fist smashed solidly onto Kiba's right shoulder, the force precisely avoiding the vulnerable points of the shoulder blade, using only blunt impact to blast him flying.
"Ahhh!"
Kiba's body rolled three times on the ground before coming to a stop. He braced his four limbs on the ground to stand up again, but the entire muscle area where his right shoulder had been struck was numb.
The half-maintained beast-like claw form from the Four Legs Technique began to dissipate, and the Chakra-condensed nails retracted back into their original human form.
"What? So fast... Is this still the Naruto I know?" Kiba squeezed these words out from his throat, his brain buzzing.
During their time at the Ninja Academy, Naruto's taijutsu grades were at the bottom of the class, his shuriken throwing had the highest miss rate, and he was tackled by him in one move during every sparring session.
How could the person standing in front of him now, without even having his breathing disrupted, be the same person as the loser in his memory?
But Kiba did not admit defeat. He slammed his hands onto the ground, using the force to spring his body up.
At the same moment, Akamaru leaped down from above his head, instantly completing the Beast Human Clone in mid-air.
After a puff of smoke, Akamaru's body transformed into a form identical to Kiba's. Both of them landed on all fours simultaneously, emitting a low growl from the depths of their throats at the same time.
Passing Fang!
Two whirlwinds swirled up from both ends of the arena simultaneously and approached Naruto in a cross formation, pinching him in.
Seeing this move, Naruto ran straight toward them.
Ino grabbed the sleeve of Shikamaru next to her. "Why isn't that idiot Naruto dodging? Passing Fang can even shred trees."
Shikamaru's brows furrowed.
Everyone felt that Naruto was being overconfident.
Just as the two whirlwinds were intersecting, a white cloud of smoke exploded simultaneously at the center where the whirlwinds converged. Two identical Narutos separated to the left and right from the smoke, nimbly sliding out.
The landing positions of the two Narutos were located on the inside and outside of the Passing Fang's rotation trajectory, respectively, with a time difference of less than half a second.
"It's a Shadow Clone!" Tenten couldn't help but shout from the viewing stands.
Guy's eyes brightened. "Not only did he dodge the attack, he also calculated the positions of him and his Shadow Clone into the blind spots of the Passing Fang's rotation."
"This timing and precision cannot be achieved by reaction alone, it's as if it were calculated in advance."
After the two Narutos landed, there was no pause. The Naruto on the left rushed toward the whirlwind that Akamaru had become, while the Naruto on the right circled from the outer arc of the Passing Fang toward Kiba's rear.
Akamaru instinctively lunged toward the Naruto closer to him. The whirlwind trajectory took a sharp turn in the air, biting straight toward the back of the Naruto on the left.
The corners of Naruto's lips curled up. The next moment, a flash of yellow light appeared behind Kiba.
Kiba was still in the rotating state of the Passing Fang and hadn't fully disengaged. His eyes hadn't seen how Naruto had appeared behind him, but his sense of smell had captured it.
He was behind him!
The next moment, a Kunai was pressed against the side of his neck. Kiba knew that if he dared to move, the Kunai would slice his throat without hesitation.
"Sorry, Kiba, you lost."
The whistling of the whirlwind stopped abruptly.
Kiba opened his mouth, wanting to say I can still fight, but only an unwilling growl came from his throat.
"I lost..."
Naruto moved the Kunai away from Kiba's neck and then extended his right hand toward him.
"Kiba, your are very strong, you were just careless for a moment."
"What do you mean careless? From the first punch to the last Shadow Clone, you were calculating me the whole time."
Kiba grabbed Naruto's hand to pull himself up and then looked at Naruto's still calm face, suddenly grinning. "But next time, you won't have it so easy. When I go back, I'll tell my mom to teach me new moves, and then I'll come to you for revenge."
Naruto smiled without saying anything else and formed hand seals with both hands to dispel the Shadow Clone.
Akamaru also dispelled the Beast Human Clone and hopped back onto Kiba's head, clawing at his messy hair.
Hayate coughed violently for a moment, then raised his right hand. "The eighth match, Uzumaki Naruto, wins."
Shikamaru straightened his back. "He really isn't who he used to be anymore."
Choji asked, "Naruto won, does that mean we're getting treated to barbecue later?"
Ino's eyes widened. "How on earth did he achieve that speed just now?"
"No, wait! The point is, how did Naruto get so strong now?"
"Is this still the same Naruto who got taken down in one move by Sasuke every time we did taijutsu sparring?"
In the highest viewing area, Hiruzen exhaled a puff of white smoke, and the corners of his lips turned up slightly.
This battle lasted only a few minutes from start to finish, but what Naruto displayed surprised even him, a Hokage who had seen countless geniuses.
"Minato, your son has grown up.'
It wasn't just his strength. Throughout the entire battle, Naruto controlled the tempo from beginning to end. Every movement was calculated down to the millisecond.
And after the battle, he was still able to walk with his arm around his opponent. This cherishing of his comrades and his lack of grudges after the win made Hiruzen see both the shadow of Minato and the future of Konoha in him.