The Wind Walker


Prototype.


"I have in my hands the means and in my heart the will." -Death Note-


The stadium was full with shinobi and civilians alike. They were roaring for some action, to see a good show, but, above all, they wanted to see the carnage that the new generation could unleash. And Shiranui Genma felt that it would be boring...at least for him, being the proctor in the finals of the Chuunin Exams. After Hayate, his dear late friend and comrade, had been killed, along side the only genin of Otogakure no Sato, it had felt upon him the luck and honor to be the referee of the matches.

"Curse you Ebisu, for making me take your place by claiming the money that I own you since last poker night game." Thought Genma bitterly before resigning himself ot his fate. "Hey, kid." called Genma to the closest genin who was not other than Aburame Shino. "Where is the Uzumaki kid and his teammate, the Uchiha?" He knew, like almost every active ninja in the village, the chronic tardiness of Hatake Kakashi. He sincerely hoped that they weren't affected by his annoying disease or they were going to be disqualified. Who he was kidding? The least gennin, the faster he could get the heck out of there!

"I'm not aware of there whereabouts. Base of previous experiences, is very likable that both of them are doing some last minute training. " said Shino in his monotone voice. He really sound like a robot when he talk.

"I see. Well, if they..." but what ever he was about to say was cut short by something falling from the sky. He immediately recognized the flashes of orange and yellow in the object, identifying no other than Uzumaki Naruto, Konoha's resident jinchuuriki.

The cloud of smoke and the loud thud of something hitting the ground front a high altitude followed the desperate cry of the blond for help.

"Ita...ita... ouch. Stupid, bastard, crazy jiji..." murmured the blond while he picked himself of the ground like falling from 30 meters high was a everyday occurrence. Maybe for him, it was.

"Hey brat, nice entrance." say Genma, his usual sembon-like-toothpick in his mouth, quite sarcastically. "Stop fooling around and line yourself with the others." Naruto only give his patented foxy grin, eyes closed in thin lines and ear to ear smile, while scratching the back of his head while he did what he was told while masterly ignoring the whispers and comments of mock and contempt. "Hey brat, where is you companion, the Uchiha?"

"Like heck I know!" said the blond quite bitterly. Genma was taken aback by the venom of hi voice but let it slide.

"Oh well, if he doesn't show up in time he will disqualified, not that I care."


In the Kage's stand, Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime Hokage, was face palming himself at Naruto's antics. He noticed that the blond usual orange jumpsuit was battered and full of patches, dirt and holes. It was an understatement the fact that it had seen better days.

"Still, how he ended falling from the sky like that? Did somebody threw him from afar? The only one capable of such thing is Tsunade, but she is not here, isn't she?" Thought the old Hokage.

"Hokage-sama, who is the blond kid?" asked the veiled face of the Kazekage, who was also attending the finals, since his children all made it into them.

"Oh, he is a fine young gennin. His name is Uzumaki Naruto."

"Uzumaki? Does he has any relationship with that clan?" asked the Kazekage in a mildly curious tone. "He doesn't posses their usual redhead."

"Oh no, Kazekage-dono. He is just one of the many orphans that resulted of the Kyuubi attack. He just was registered with that name to give him something to belong." the Kazekage seemed a peaced with the explanation and left it there. "That was closed. I still forget that there are many people that still know the history of Uzu."

"I don't see the last Uchiha anywhere, I thought that he made it into the finals. Does anything happened to him, Hokage-sama?"

"Don't worry Kazekage-dono, he will be here. If it comes to it, we will moved his match only he arrives."

"Hmm, very well. I want that my son, Gaara, defeat the infamous Uchiha blood and proved the powerfulness of Suna."

"Don't get too excited, Kazekage-dono, you may be surprised."

"We will see indeed."

Satisfied, the Hokage nodded to Genma who understood the message of getting the ball rolling already.


"Okay, now, we will begin the Finals of the Chuunin exam. Hyuuga Neji and Uzumaki Naruto stay while the others go to the participants' stand." ordered the chuunin.

The rest of the chuunin-wannabies did as told, while Naruto and Neji readied themselves and faced each other. It seemed that Neji decided to made the obvious, at least to him, known.

"You should give up, Uzumaki-san. Fate has decided my victory over you today, so stop and useless waste of time and give up." said the prodigy arrogantly.

Naruto decided to pull a Kakashi out in this one. "Eh, did you say something?" he said while stretching a little bit.

"Stop trying to be cool, loser. You will never defeat me no matter how hard you try. You are a dead last while I'm a prodigy and the rookie of my graduation year. Fate had give you a bad hand, as a shinobi made a tactical retreat and live for another day."

"Does eyes of yours can see the future? Because my eyes only see you in the floor, defeated by the awesomeness of my punches." said Naruto in his usual self.


"Hokage-sama, don't you think that pairing the dead last against a prodigy of the Hyuuga clan is a tad too... unbalanced." said the Kazekage quite amused.

"Maybe Kazekage-dono, but Naruto has the talent to surprised the most experienced of nijas. He may do it again."

"You speak highly of this gennin, maybe I should pay a close eye on him also."

"That you should, Kazekage-dono, or you may miss something very interesting."


"Did you hear? The demon brat actually things that he can defeat one of the mighty Hyuuga."

"Well, he is a demon, maybe he will reveal his true self and defeat him."

"But wasn't he the dead last of his year? I heard that he repeated the exam three times."

"Remember that his kind are trickster."

These, and similar comments could be heard by Hyuuga Hiashi, who had both his daughters next to him while examining the public and the participants of the Finals. He didn't care about the demon brat, since it didn't concerned him, and at the light of his Byakugan he knew that the chances of the Uzumaki kid defeating Neji, a genius even by their standards, was bar to none. Still, he knew by experiences that a small surprise was enough to take down the mightiest of the shinobi.

But this was a great chance to proved why the Hyuuga was the best of the best.

Hyuuga Hinata, in the other hand, had other thoughts.

"Naruto-kun, please, don't kill him, as you promised me. Neji is suffering even more than my body is with these wounds. Make him understand, make him see the hurt on his soul."


"Hey, Shino, don't you see anything different in Naruto?" asked Shikamaru to the Aburame, gaining the attention of the rest fo the finalists.

"Indeed. Uzumaki-san seems more...secure and calmer than usual. Perhaps he was an ace under his sleeves?"

"Troublesome." murmured Shikamaru while returning his gaze to the fighters, silently pondering Shino's words.

The rest of the gennin didn't understood was was going on.


"Are you two ready?" asked Genma to both of them, gaining a nod from both. "Then, the first match of the semifinals of the Chuunin Exams begins. HAJIME!" And with that he shunshin himself out of there, not wanting to be caught in the crossfire.

Neji inmediately fall in a Juunken stance while waiting his opponent to make the first move. He knew that Naruto was an impatient individual and thus, he was bound to lose his cool first and attack, giving Neji and opening. He didn't had to wait long, but not in the way that he was expecting.

Widing his eyes, Neji pulled himself down avoiding by mere inches a a high rolling kick. Rolling out of there as said kick changed its trajectory into his direction, Neji was forced once again to avoid with masterful grace another kick, along side a punch, heading his way.

"Clones? How? And they are solid. But he didn't moved or maid any hangings. Then how? It was like they..."


"... shimmering into existence. It was like they appeared out the thin air." Thought the Hokage quite surprised. "No hand sings, no smoke of burning chackra. Naruto, how did you gained such control over this technique? Was this the focus of last month training? You surprise me Naruto. A kage bushin without smoke means that you had perfect chakra control, and not only that, the technique without seals tells a mastery over it that not many people achieve." The Hokage noted that, while the clones were assaulting Neji before being quickly dispatched before being replace by more clones in the process that were appearing out of nothingness, shimmering into the field, Naruto had put a considerable distances between the busy Hyuuga and himself, and was watching rather attentively how his minions were facing the prodigy. "Did you also discovered the secret behind the kage bushin? Not only that, but it seems that you are able to summon them even at certain range, while most people can only summon them at mere inches from themselves. Naruto, once again you had surprise me."


The audience was in awe. They were watching how Hyuuga Neji, the rookie of last year gennin batch, was being overwhelmed by blond replicas that were appearing out of nowhere.

Maito Gai, could see the frown of frustration in his misguided student, and could see that thing would be turning pear shape very soon. Still, he couldn't help but be impressed by Naruto's simple but effective tactic of tiring his student. Not only that, but he could see the difference between the Uzumaki from a moth ago and this one. While the former had a pedestrian taijutsu at best, more suited for a drunken brawler that had never fought in his life, this Uzumaki had fluid grace of movements that, while not as elegant as the Juunken and powerful as the Gouken, was quite effective.


Things weren't going according to plan for one Hyuuga Neji. For the last five minutes he had been moving dodging and dispelling the loser clones and he knew that the kid was only trying to tire him rapidly. And the worst, he was succeeding.

It wouldn't long before Neji start to tire enough for him to make mistakes. He knew it, and he knew that the loser knew it.

"Dam. To think that I have to use that technique agaisnt the likes of him so soon isn't good. But if I don't use it, then I'm done for."

Naruto, in the other hand, could see that Neji's body was tensing, which meant that he was about to do something big. "Hummp. It seems that he is about to use a special technique of the Juunken, and by the looks of it, he is confident that he will win the match with it. Like any taijutsu based technique, he will need proximity to use it, so, why not use it against him? Yeah, that sounds like a plan. You will pay for what you did to Hinata-chan, dattebayo!"

Neji noticed an opening and started to slowly approach Naruto while facing the horde of clones. He noticed the improvement in their taijutsu style and efficiency, but still were not match for his Juunken. When he was close enough, Neji quickly dispatched the clones before they could re-spawn gain and decided to marvel the world with one of the Hyuuga famous technique.

"Sorry, but you are in the way of may divination."


"That stance! Neji, how you...?" thought the shocked leader of the Hyuuga clan. Hanabi and Hinata also recognized the stances and were not lest shocked than their father.


"Soft Palm Style: Sixty-four strikes of the trigram! Two strikes, four strikes, eight strikes, sixteen strikes, thirty-two strikes, sixty-four strikes." It was an impressive barrage of hits. Each time, the number doubled themselves while the speed and viciousness also increase in the boy without losing rhythm or accuracy.


"Wow." exclaimed Ino, who was sitting next to Sakura and her father, whistling in appreciation. "One hundred and twenty-six strikes in least than twenty seconds, no wonder that the Juunken is considered the strongest in Konoha. Poor Naruto, he looked so cool and surprised me with his opening assault. I thought for a second he would win. What do you think billboard forehead?"

"I don't think he will be able to get out of this one." say Sakura after a while. "Thought he had improved a lot."

"Yeah, I think that you are right. There is no way that the dead last could beat a prodigy like Neji."

"I don't be so sure Ino. The ninja world is full of surprises." Thought Inoichi, without taking his eyes from the match.


"Is over loser. This is what happens when ones tries to challenge Fate and..." but before he could finish, his Byakugan saw how multiples clones shimmered into existences and started to throw him kunais at point-blank-range.

Neji body reacted before he registered what was happening.

"Hakkeshou: Kaiten!" a huge dome of chakra appeared around the boy protecting him from the assault of dangerously pointy kunais. A closer inspection would had reveal that said kunais, when they collided with the chakra dome, disappeared in a cloud of smoke.


"Not only one of our most power combos, but also our absolute defense. Neji, how had you come this far without me noticing? Maybe I have invested my efforts in the wrong way." Thought Hiashi while quickly gazing the failure of daughter next to him.


"You were right Hokage-sama, that kid is indeed surprising."

"Indeed, Kazekage-dono. But I admit that I wasn't expecting something close to this."


Genma was surprised, as everybody in the stadium, at the turn of events. He, like everybody else, were expecting a quick victory for the Hyuuga, while they waited for the main event: Sabaku no Gaara vs Uchiha Sasuke. But know Genma could see everybody in the stadium at the edge of their seats, paying close attention to the match.

"Than blond kid is quite surprising. He invited Neji-san into a false security and let him reveal on of his techniques. At some point he made a clone and somehow substituted himself with it before reversing the trap against the Hyuuga, or he would if his opponent wouldn't have known such an advance defense. I wonder what the Kyuubi brat will do now." Thought the proctor while analyzing the match from afar.

He could see how Naruto jump out of a tree in the other side of the field and started to walk before stopping where Neji's starting point was as the chackra dome dissipated.

Naruto taking a scroll out of his pouch, opening and unsealed a Fuuma Shuriken, before starting to spin it in his hand before throwing it when the chakra dome dissipated completely.


"Don't tell me he is going to use..." murmured Sakura in the stands while watching his teammate redefining all they knew about him.

"Use what, big forehead?" asked Ino with her spiked curiosity.

"You will see, Ino-bunta."


"You have to be kidding me. This kid is totally different from the one in the preliminary matches. How did he change so much? Is he an impostor?" Thought Neji frustrated. He had used a lot of his chakra already while his opponent, a bug in his eyes, was looking quite fresh. His musing was cut short when the blond kid, that jumped out of a tree at the opposite side of the stadium, took out a Fuuma Shuriken and started to spin it. Neji, trying to gain time, was about to verbally attack him, but again was interrupted by the big metal throwing star being launched at him.

Said shuriken, having crossed ¾ of the distance that separated them, suddenly revealed that it wasn't along, but a second fuuma shuriken was also launched.

"He concealed the second shuriken in the shadow of the first, an impressive, if simple, tactic... but this will not be enough." And with his usual grace, Neji jumped out of harms way. That's when, both shuriken having pass him, his Byakugan saw how the unthinkable happened: the shurikens changed, once again without smoke, into clones.


"He summoned his clones an henged them into fuuma shuriken, making believe Neji that his plan was the second shuriken, basically fainting a faint." though Tenten amazed at the blond kids plan. His weapon handling skills could improve, though were decent, but it was how he use them in his tactics to trap Neji that impressed her the most. "That kid, he knows the true meaning of deception, and I think that he had all of us played like fools." Noting the surprised looks in her peers and senseis.

"But what was that..."


"... henge?" Thought Mitarashi Anko among the public. "It wasn't an illusion. It was a solid Fuuma Shuriken out of there. I haven't heard of such variant fo the henge and say that, used to its full potential, it would be one of the most dangerous techniques known to the shinobi world."

And similar thoughts were running among the ninjas that were present. The Henge no Jutsu was an illusionary technique that blended the light around the caster and make it look like he or she was something else, giving the illusion of a transformation. You could not fly even if you henge into a bird or couldn't spit fire if you henge into a dragon, no, it was just a deceptive technique and quite basic. The reason why it was taught at the Acadamy was because it was easy to learn, and it was the foundation to learn more advanced illusions.

And now the dead last of his year, a pariah, had pretty much redefined the possibilities of this new Henge, if it could be called as such, in battle.

"That technique is going to be in the Forbidden Scroll fro sure. Ibiki was right, that kid is quite interesting."


"How this is possible? Maybe the fox? It is said that Kitsunes are shape-shifters after all. I will need to talk with Naruto after all this is done, and Kakashi too. For some reason I don't think that Kakashi taught such a technique to a gennin." thought the Hokage while the Kazekage was quite attentive of, the previous thought boring, match.


The now revealed clones took out of their pouches kunakis and shuriken before unleashing them unto Neji. The Hyuuga, deciding to conserve chakra, instead of using again the Kaiten decided to until reflect the projectiles while approaching the original Naruto. But Neji was wary, for all he knew, the blond could pull another of his traps.

To his relief, this Naruto didn't exploded with the first hit, so it had to be the original. But his relief was short lived because, somehow, Naruto was blocking every single one of his Juunken strikes.

"Impossible!" was the only thing that Neji could said without stopping his assault of juunken strikes while Naruto block them with his own palm while the other wand was behind his back.

"Oh, did I gave you the impression that you could win? I'm deeply sorry." it may had sounded mocking, but Neji knew that the blond was dead serious, something that made him angrier than he was. "You were under the assumption that I was avoiding your attacks because they represented potential harm to my person. But you were wrong. I only avoided them because I just felt like it. Your prized Juunken is obsolete as is your narrow view of life."


"Father, I had been taught that our family technique was invincible and flawless. How, then, this nobody is rendering it useless?" asked Hanabi to his father, not quite understanding what was going on.

"Our family taijutus IS flawless, dear daughter. Neji is superior both physically and in experience, but he had let that he temper and Uzumaki's words affect his judgment and that is resulting in him making mistakes." said Hiashi, knowing that all what he had said was BS, but his convincing power was never to be questioned, and his explanation calmed his daughter. "Still, Hanabi had a point. Until now, not body had faced the Juunken and getting out, if possible, without permanent scars at least. Maybe the pariah, this bug, had succeeded in something that many great men and women had tried and failed? The Hyuuga may need to take some... drastic actions against him." Thought Hiashi, while his other daughter had another thoughts.

"You are wrong father. Naruto has the ability, and the will, to do the impossible. You know it, but you don't want to accept it." were Hinata's thoughts while a small smile was on her face. Both her father and little sister noted this, but she didn't care. It was Naruto's time to shine after all!


"Neji, I'm getting bored. I think is time to finish this." and with that Naruto took both his palms and locked them with Neji's. The Hyuuga could feel how his chakra collided against Naruto's palms before being repelled back... painfully. "Did you like it? I called it Ninpou: Kame no koora. I created specially fro dealing with your prized Juunken."

"How are you able to do this? How you dare to challenge fate?" Neji could not understand it. This nobody, no, Uzumaki Naruto, was doing what was supposed to be impossible for the likes of him.

"Simple Neji: Because... I'm... AWESOME!" And as cued, Naruto's body exploded catching Neji in a ball of fire, or it would, if he hadn't reacted on instinct and activated his Kaiten. Still, since the attack was at point-blank range, he wasn't able to defend totally form the explosion.

The clones that Naruto had created earlier started to pull out more and more kunai and shuriken with the odd fuuma shuriken added into the mix, preventing Neji from stopping his Kaiten.

Another Naruto shimmered into existence and bit on of his finger, drawing blood from it. Rolling one of his sleeves, Naruto made a crossing line along his arm before pulsing his chakra.

"Ninpou: Gia Sekando" Instantly, the whole stadium felt, even some sensible civilians, a pulse of chakra that felt overwhelming. Hiashi, Hanabi and Hinata had to shut down their dojutsu immediately or the bright pulsing energy that their eyes were registering, or they would had ended blind. The rest of the present saw how all the energy retracted itself before condensing around Naruto's left arm. It was so dense that it was visible to the naked eye.

Naruto ready himself as the mass of chakra took the shape of a double edged sword.


"Don't tell me that he is thinking to penetrate the Kaiten. That fool, if he try it the rapidly ration chakra will shred his arm in tiny little pieces." Thought Hiashi, sure of the superiority of the Hyuuga legacy. Still, a small part of him felt uneasy, like something wasn't quite right.

And them, Uzumaki Naruto launched himself against the chakra dome with a speed that was hard to follow, even with especial dojutsus


Neji, whiel rotating under the kunais and shurikens assault, could only see in slow motion how his opponent unleashed an unbelievable amount of chakra and condensed in his left arm before launching himself against his Kaiten. Yeah, even if he knew that Naruto was approaching his safe haven easily with four or five times more the speed that he had displayed until that moment in their fight, even then, Neji was seeing him in slow motion.

And he was scared.

His fear wasn't coming front the fact that the blond may penetrate his defense. No, what scared him the most was those azure eyes, eyes that he had seen in his crippled companion, Lee, until that this time it was a hundred fold worst. The eyes of a fighter that only could see the victory at his reach, in front of him, and would not let anything to be between it and them.

And thus, Neji could only watch how Naruto's chakra covered arm sliced through the Kaiten like a light-saber would into a snowman (yeah, I just put the old example of hot knife and butter in shame... Note: I took this form THIRD FANG).

In a blink of an eye, Naruto was at the other side, pass Neji with his arm extended like he had just made a cutting motion. And indeed, he had. The blond only murmured the name of the technique, but the silence was so deafening that everybody heard it.

"Ninpou: Tateworono."

Behind him, Neji was looking wide eyed into the sky, while he found that could move his body and couldn't feel his left arm. His Byakugan, though, was other matter, and thus he knew that his left arm was broken in several odd angles, most of his prideful long hair had been cut at shoulder's length and his left shoulder was bleeding profusely from a clean slash.

"How? How you were able to break the chains of fate?" asked the broken voice of Neji. His world had been destroyed with like it was paper tissue.

"Because, unlike you, I'm a loser." seeing that the Hyuuga frown in confusion, Naruto decided to elaborate. "Did you know that I had to repeat the academy final test three times? DId you know why? It was because the damned bushin technique. No matter how hard I practiced, how much I tried, I couldn't do a simple miserable bushin... And now, it is my best technique."

"Hinata told me about what happened between you two and your dad." this surprised Neji, but Naruto didn't let him talk. "I understand how you feel, if a little, but to think that you had unleashed you anger into her, when she wasn't anything but a little girl, is unthinkable. Did you know that my original plan was to kill you? Yeah Neji, Hinata-chan is very important to me, but you know what? She begged for your pathetic life, Yes Neji, Hinata begged into submission while coughing blood, thanks to the wounds that you inflected her, that I spare your life, her dear Neji-nii-san."

And with that, Naruto started to walk away before stopping. He didn't turn around, but he pondered for a second his next words. "Neji, if Fate is a wheel, then we are the cogs that drive it". And with that he resumed his walk barely hearing the proctor declaring his victory.

The stadium was stunned and they didn't know what to think. One Umino Iruka was dancing in happiness though. He had bet on Naruto's win 200 to 1, and won like the bulk of one year and half worth of his salary.

Naruto stopped again, this time facing the public before raising his fist and grining in victory.

"MY NAME IS UZUMAKI NARUTO, YOU FUTURE HOKAGE. DATTEBAYO!"

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And finish.

ANd this is the prototype chapter of a plot that occurred to me recently. I hope you like it. DOnt expected updates anytime soon (though if I get many reviews that will change) because I'm focussing my efforts in Epiphany and Forsaken: Forgotten at the moment.

Any way, some translations:

Ninpou: Kame no koora: Ninja Art: Turtle's Shell. It creates a inner cloak of highly densed chakra that protects the internal organs and chakra network. It forms under the skin and has the side effect to block penetratin dojutsus as the Byakugan.

Ninpou: Gia Sekando: Ninja Art: Second Gear (cyber grandma' cookies for those that guest where the name is taken from.) It is simple unleashin sealed chakra from especial seals. Naruto had all over his body what is called THe Danmed Seals, because their use on shinobi presioners. These DS sealed 80 percent of a person total chakra and used the sealed energy to strengh itselg. Since Naruto has inhuman ammount of chakra, he use on per eahc tail that the demon fox has, depending of the number of the tail The second level, the one that he used in the fight, only onleashed his normal chakra, whoel the third level will unleashed the first chakra tail. The fourth, has two DS because it unleashes 2 tails, the fifth 3 DS for three tails and so on. He was ten levels and a total of 46 DS. And elite jounin will only need 2 max.

Ninpou: Tateworono: Ninja Art: Shield Breaker. As the name impplies, it similar to Hatake Kakashi's infamous RAIKIRI. Is highly condense chakra shaped to cut with easy alsmot anything. It was inspired by the chakra scalpels technique.