Summary: Naruto falls to Neji during the chuunin exams. How will this one battle between two genin change the fate of Konoha?

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, Naruto would know more wind jutsu, goddammit .

A Broken Promise

Naruto stood, albeit barely, panting and trying to catch his breath. "What's going on? I can't feel ANY chakra at all. It's like I don't even have a freaking chakra system! Dammit!" All he felt was numbing pain all over. And it had all happened so fast, it didn't even make sense. It was painful to remain standing. It was all Naruto could do to stand and glare at the boy who stood before him, without so much as a smudge of dirt on him.

Neji.

"Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms. Surprised? You should be. And you're not the only one"

Up in the stands, one Hyuga Hiashi stared, bewildered at the branch house member, though his face showed none of it.

"That is a technique taught only to the members of the high and mighty main house of the Hyuga main branch. My strikes have closed your tenketsu, the points through which chakra flows through out your chakra system. From the pitiful look on your face, I can tell that you're wondering why you can't access any of your chakra. My eyes can see all. And you can't hide the truth from me." Neji spoke down to the blonde genin in front of him. His eyes seeing the truth in Naruto's body that he himself couldn't see. And the confused look on the blondes face ended up causing Neji to smirk ever so slightly.

"Face it. You're a failure. You can't beat me. Your fate was decided the moment you were born…and it was finalized when you stepped in this arena against me."

"Dammit all to hell! I have to beat this guy. I HAVE to. I…I promised. I promised Hinata that I would. And bushy-brows. I'm doing this for him too." Naruto painfully raised his arms to try and force chakra through his body. "If only I could open those gates like bushy-brows. Maybe then I could force my tenketsu open. But would that even work? Gah! What does it matter?! I don't know how to!"

"That's not going to work, fool. You may think your chakra is still there, but it's not. It's. Gone! I've heard that you're stupid so I'm making this as simple as possible. You. Have. No. Chakra!" Neji mocked with just the slightest bit of humorous contempt leaking out of his veiled voice.

"SHUT UP! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT I CAN DO, SO DON'T LOOK DOWN ON ME!" The loud genin screamed. But he knew just as well as Neji did that it was all a bluff at this point. "I promised. I made a promise to beat you. And I WILL find a way to do it. I don't give a damn if you shut off my chakra. So long as I have use in even one arm, I will use that arm to punch your lights out" Naruto pointed at Neji as he spoke, but in truth, he was just buying time and trying to think up a strategy that would actually work

Neji's face turned into a slight scowl at the words of the stubborn boy before him "You're still resisting. I'll be the first to admit that it was admirable at first, but you're starting to annoy me. You keep this up and you're going to get hurt…well…more hurt." Neji threatened with no sense of playing around in his voice.

Naruto couldn't help but smirk at Neji. "Tch. You know, for a genius, you're pretty dumb. And if your lack of info on me is anything to go by as your skills as a ninja, then I have to say, you downright SUCK at getting good intel. How the hell did you even get past the first exam?"

As if there weren't enough veins throbbing on his face already. Neji's eyes seemed to intensify as the fool in front of him continued to splutter out nonsense that was getting to be insulting. That last rant caused just the smallest bit of killing intent to roll off Neji.

This didn't go unnoticed by Naruto. Nor Genma. "Ok. This could get ugly fast" The jonin thought to himself as he shifted his stance the tiniest bit, all focus on Neji now.

"Oh scary." Naruto continued to mock the genius. But much to everyone's surprise, the light vanished in his eyes. His eyes became steel. "You. You talk of fate and suffering and geniuses and failures. That's your life. Did you know that other people have lives too? Ever think of that? Other people's lives are not fate, suffering, genius and failure. We have other things. Me? I'll admit mine has had suffering. Still does. And it probably won't change anytime soon."

The Sandaime Hokage, looking on from the Kage's box, felt as though this one tiny genins words were more painful than a blade to his heart. He knew the truth. All of it. "I'm sorry, Minato"

"I don't know about your suffering and I don't know how much or in what way you've suffered but I actually don't wanna know either. But I have something else in my life. I have a dream. My dream is to be Hokage, so that I can live a life free of suffering and one where the people actually like me. And if fate decides that I can't be Hokage, then I'll fight back. I'll be the one who defies fate. I'll be the one who defeats fate. And I'll be the one who defeats yo-"

"ENOUGH!" Neji roared. "You know nothing of fate. NOTHING! I have listened to your trash for long enough." Neji wasn't even bothering to try and hide his killer intent now. It was rolling off him in surges. "Fate is absolute. Fate is God's will. To defy fate is to defy God Himself. You are nothing but a lowly human. Your hubris is sickening. Your fate is failure. Your fate is defeat. And it will be at MY HANDS!"

Neji pushed off the ground with blinding speed. A stunned Naruto could only stare in surprise at the calm boy's sudden outburst. The last sight he could remember was Neji's furious byakugan staring through his soul and the impact of a palm against his forehead.

The arena was quiet for the whole time Naruto's body stood stock still until the sound of him crumpling to the floor was heard.

Genma walked over to Naruto's unconscious body and checked his vitals. He shot a small glare at Neji, who had regained his composure and showed no emotion. Especially remorse.

Genma stood, and walked slowly towards Neji. He stared Neji full in the eyes and said, loud enough for the whole stadium to hear.

"Winner. Hyuga Neji!"

A/N: Kinda short for an intro I guess. Could be because I started at the end of the Neji fight. Oh well. Hopefully I can make the next chapters longer. I have a rough outline for the first couple of chapters already, but I will only start to write them if I get positive feedback. So, take the time and leave a review please. It would help a lot. Thanks