"Any one of your weapons could have been any of my disguised bombs and you wouldn't have known it until it was too late. More or less, it was a deadly gamble with the odds strongly against you."
The girl looked at the blonde with a stupefied expression. Both Sandaime and Jiraiya had the same thought in mind in how Tsunade's gambling habits have rubbed off on Naruto, but with a surprisingly lethal twist. Tsunade herself was surprised at Naruto's use of gambling as a strategic method of combat. The other Genins looked at the blonde before recalling the stunt he pulled on Iruka a couple of years ago at the academy with the exploding apple he gave Iruka. Back then Naruto made it very clear that if he really wanted to killed Iruka he'd have already been dead should he had made that exploding apple fatal. It was no secret to any of them that Naruto was holding back a great deal against Tenten the entire time.
"I gave you the clue earlier," Naruto spoke, "'Things aren't always as they seem and you'd do well to look underneath the underneath.' But alas my warning to you fell on deaf ears, especially when I saw you tie all of the weapons to your fingers before raising them up off the ground towards you. You solidified your own defeat to me through the overconfidence I purposely planted in you after allowing myself to be hit by some of your weapons."
Tenten couldn't believe what she was hearing, but it made complete sense. She knew about the renowned stories of how Naruto was able to set traps and pranks on Chuunins, Jounins and the ANBU and escape their capture. It amazed her how ingenious Naruto was when it came to deception, traps and being an escape artist.
She would have never expected her own weapons to backfire at her if disguised shadow clone bombs weren't hidden among them. What surprised her more was the revelation that Naruto used his own body as a distraction to throw off her judgment and cause her to become overconfident in her abilities. He planned her defeat perfectly in such a short time, she realized.
That Naruto, Kakashi thought, Leave it to him to discreetly pull off surprising usages of resources without going overboard. He's truly my sensei's son.
I'm happy I didn't have to fight against him, Shikamaru thought, Fighting against someone like him would have been so troublesome.
"That strategy I used however would prove useless against any Hyuuga," Naruto admitted, "Hina-chan would have easily seen through my strategy and effectively counter it."
Hinata smiled and blushed brightly on hearing Naruto complimenting her abilities against his.
"You truly live up to your name…and title Naruto," Tenten smiled showing some of her teeth despite her pain, "…I'm happy that I've gotten the chance…to fight and test my skills against yours. I'll take my defeat…as a lesson to better prepare myself…should we ever face off again."
Naruto smiled and nodded his head to her, "I'm sure by then you'll have greatly improved."
"Winner: Senju Uzumaki Naruto," Hayate said before medic nins and placed Tenten on the stretcher before taking her away for medical treatment.
"Naruto-kun's spirit of sportsmanship is truly ablaze with his flames of youth Gai-sensei!," Lee said enthusiastically.
"Yes Lee!," Gai agreed with the same, if not more, enthusiastic spirit, "Naruto's flames of youth shines brightly through his dedication to hard work and training like you! Though Tenten have lost her match to Naruto, his humble spirit and sportsmanship radiated his fires of youth even brighter."
Naruto turned and walked up to the balcony stand to join the others. As he walked passed them, he noticed how Sasuke and Neji were looking at him. They couldn't believe that Naruto brought about Tenten's defeat in a short amount of time without so much as touching her once. They were hoping to see him use some powerful jutsu so they could develop methods of countering it. Instead he used basic ninjutsus, B-ranked kinjutsus and a well-planned strategy; this wasn't what either of them was expecting or hoping to see.
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