Naruto: Cautious Ninja

"Sasuke-kun! You can do it!" Sakura cried.

"Beat that class clown, Sasuke-kun!" Ino also shouted.

"You're awesome!"

"Yes! You're the best!"

"Don't let that idiot mess with you! He's pathetic!"

"You can knock that slacker's butt to the ground easy! Come on, Sasuke-kun!"

Sasuke bit his bottom lip when he tried for another jab, only for Naruto to sway with it, keeping his nose millimeters in front of the knuckles the entire motion before following it back when the Uchiha withdrew it. Naruto kept doing that for the following attacks, resulting in a tick mark forming on the genius's forehead.

The shouting from the fan club wasn't helping him.

"You think this is easy?" Sasuke thought furiously while glaring after his opponent who danced around him with his roguish grin. "I've dealt with speed before, but this is completely different to anything I've ever seen this idiot do in the past. His evasive tendencies are just whack and his stance is so unrefined." Seeing the blonde skipping ahead of him with his hands dropped at his sides and wearing that crafty smile on his face had the raven haired boy's gaze tighten. "I guess it suits him, being the class clown and all…"

Mizuki chuckled as he watched Sasuke rush in to reengage. With the village-famed genius initiating the second round, the white haired man glanced over at the main homeroom teacher for council, "Sasuke seems to be having his hands full with Naruto today. Quite the surprise, huh?"

The scarred man groaned and rubbed the aforementioned mark across his nose, "Yes, but this is completely ridiculous. Naruto's making a mockery of his match and isn't even trying to hit back. What is he thinking?"

"Who knows what goes through that kid's brain most of the time," the other Chunin shrugged before looking back to see Naruto once again dancing around his opponent with ease. "But still, I gotta give him points for dodging."

"And I'm taking away those points for a lack of common sense and security for his own safety," Iruka frowned while tapping his clipboard impatiently. "Those moves do not fall under standard taijutsu guidelines or practices; not the ones I taught him." It seemed a little harsh, but what Naruto was doing was completely unorthodox.

Seriously, what could he accomplish from this tactic? He wasn't even fighting back.

Sasuke dashed straight at Naruto again, the crowd swooning when the genius dove in with a beautifully corked up left straight. He was clearly intent on bringing this battle to close-range, to trap his opponent on the edge, to cut off his escape and to bring him to heel with a quick take-down. However, just as he was getting within striking distance, the jinchuriki hovering outside of range of his punch suddenly dove in to meet him halfway.

In the blink of an eye Naruto's face was stopped just inches from his target. The speed the jinchuriki used shocked the Uchiha and, just as Sasuke was thrusting out with his punch, he felt the unmistakable tap of his opponent's knuckles against his. A split second later the blonde in front of him spun around and allowed him to dive right passed him, resulting in the raven haired boy's fist striking nothing but air again.

Baffled, the Uchiha spun around and watched his target pull away for the hundredth time, earning a blink of amazement. "He just tapped my fist in mid-motion! D-Did he do that on purpose?" A bead of sweat ran down Sasuke's face as he watched his opponent stop and stare back at him with those cool blue orbs of his. "Is he… telling me that he can see my moves? That he can hit me anytime he wants to?"

The grin that appeared on Naruto's face had Sasuke grit his own teeth and glare back furiously.

"Bullshit!" Sasuke turned and charged, attacking his opponent with a barrage of sharp punches and kicks. No longer fighting with the grace and form he held before, the Uchiha began striking at his foe with even more ferocity. His style began losing all refinement and tact, all of it being replaced by anger and desperation. "This slacker-clown is just toying with me. That's it. He's just fooling around and trying to psyche me out. There's no way in hell he'll be able to hit me if I keep attacking him at this speed. No way!" But try as he did, with all his attacks raining down on his target no matter what he attempted the Uchiha just could not catch the orange blur darting in and out of his view. The effort was becoming more and more frustrating. "Damn it!"

Sasuke swung with a right hook, but the jinchuriki swayed and dropped out of sight once more. The Uchiha, losing his target for a third time, tried to search him out across the ring to give pursuit. He glanced left and right repeatedly, trying to locate and tail any trace of his ridiculously elusive prey.

Unbeknownst to him however Naruto had relocated again, having placed himself directly behind his opponent. Back to back, he followed Sasuke's motions of his body and stayed out of his line of sight. When he looked left, he did too. When he looked right, he mimicked.

Grinning mischievously, Naruto figured he'd messed with his rival enough and stuck his backside out so that it slammed into Sasuke's, knocking the boy stumbling forwards and startling him. Unable to regain control of his motion the Uchiha lost his footing and went crashing hard into the ground, rolling a couple of times before managing to stop himself. On all fours, the genius glared up toward his opponent who had stopped moving and bouncing around, but was still smiling at him with his bullshit lowered guard.

Wiping the dirt off of his face on the back of his fist, Sasuke shot back up to his feet. Though he stumbled, he corrected. There was no way he was going to let his pride get destroyed by a delinquent academy student who didn't take anything seriously. It was time to put an end to this.

Before he could do anything though, Naruto started swaying his upper body from side to side; using some weird motions to try and either coax his opponent into attacking him again or was attempting to figure out a way to get around his antagonist's blows, which he had long since visualized in his head.

Either way, his swaying annoyed the class genius. "Stop messing around," Sasuke said loudly.

"Aww, come on, teme," Naruto grinned teasingly. "What good is a sparring match if you're not having any fun?"