How to Survive a Naruto Reincarnation

Step 21: Learn to not overhelp.

The day arrived. 

I found Sakura and Hinata sitting together with Ino in the audience stands. After brief greetings, I joined them. A minute later, we spotted the tiny middle schoolers gathering together in the waiting area. Everyone was on time too. 

"Can't wait for what's about to be the fastest escalation to a surprise war. I even brought enough liquids to last a nuclear winter." 

*****

And because this is the other recurring joke of my life, all the matches went exactly as planned. 

Naruto beat up Neji (surprisingly without the help of the Rasengan) and won. 

Kankuro backed out of the match against Shino. 

And of course, they put Sasuke against Gaara because at least half of the stadium was having bets against the two. 

*****

We watched Sasuke face off against Gaara. While Gaara was doing his sandy tactics, Sasuke closed his eyes. 

"What's he doing? He's gonna get hit!" One of the kids whispered. 

"Yeah, what's up with him?" I answered, eyes stuck to the arena. "I don't remember him having psychic powers." 

*****

Sasuke opened his eyes. But he didn't show his Sharingan. Half of the stadium jeered at him, taunting him. 

"Yo, are you gonna use your bloodline to fight or something?" 

"Don't be so lame, kid!" 

"This will be over fast." 

"I put money on you, you better not lose!" 

"Show those red eyes!"

"Come on!" 

Sasuke scowled but didn't otherwise acknowledge the audience. Instead, he fully focused on Gaara and attacked, starting on a strong offense. 

And of course, Gaara had essentially a perfect defense. The two fought against each other, Sasuke relying solely on brute force like Lee in the preliminaries and a couple of fireballs, while Gaara had sand. 

But still, Sasuke didn't bother showing his Sharingan. What's he doing? 

"You're gonna get killed, kid! Better show those eyes!" 

"Does he even know how to use them?"

"What a waste then. This show is for nothing." 

"Come on! Do something! Be more entertaining!" 

"Guess the Uchiha Clan's not all that great."

"You said it, man!" 

"Yeah, what's wrong with him?" 

"The Uchiha Clan deserved to die!" 

"Yeah!" 

"The Uchiha Clan is a joke!" 

"Ahahahaha!"

*****

I turned to Sakura on my left. 

"Hey, how good is your throwing?" 

"Eh? Not bad I guess." 

"Great. Throw this can at that person's head." I drained a soda can and crushed it down into a puck. 

"Eh?" She took the soda can puck from me. 

"They deserve it. They're annoying. Throw it." 

She looked back at me more determinedly and stood up to throw the projectile at said person's head. 

"Hey! Who threw that!" 

Sakura sat back down hurriedly, and Ino clapped her on the back. "Nice aim." 

Hinata threw a thumbs up to her. 

I smiled at their comradery and cracked open another can. "Hang on, next puck coming up." 

*****

Sasuke was making not too bad progress despite not using his Sharingan. While he was nowhere as powerful in the original storyline, he was no slacker either. He was incredibly resilient (I didn't know he had that side to him) and...surprisingly calm. 

I was not expecting that. I was certain comments about his clan would trigger and response, but he didn't even look fazed. 

Most of the crowd had died down and were now grumbling at the "pathetic" display of a fight. 

At this point, the fight was dragging on. Sasuke was holding his ground, while Gaara's defenses were slowly cracking. Then, suddenly, Gaara did a partial transformation, half of it belonging to Shakkaku. 

The stadium went crazy.