Freedom has a Price

by Bleedndreamz

Naruto had a problem. He had no one to train him for the chunin exams, but more importantly, he had no one in life there for him that would also judge him. So naturally he was desperate. Yet you know what they say... "Desperation only attracts vultures."

3. Fool Me Twice? Three times? No

Timeskip one more week. Two weeks till finals.

XX

Naruto had a huge grin as he made his way down the street to the clothing store. Ever since Naruto had started applying shadow clones to his training, every day... no every hour he would grow in leaps and bounds. He had since perfected drawing out water from the air around him. It put a strain on his body, but he was sure that would lift as he used it more often. However that wasn't why he was grinning, because he learned far more than that.

The water cutting sword he hadn't been able to really get a hang of last week was now perfected within an "hour" of training at the beginning of the week. Since then he had been training personally with Mei off to the side on his body and how to utilize the sword to the best of his ability. The style was interesting, it was based on being extremely fast over bodies of water and dealing quick and overwhelming kenjutsu blows with the ever shape changing blade. Naruto just wished he could figure out a way to take the style to the next level.

So in the meantime while trying to figure out a way about making the style better, he had begun mastering random jutsus designated by Mei as he personally worked on his body. The first, and definitely most memorable of jutsus that he was taught was the Water Prison. Mei explained to Naruto how the prison was often used just to stop the enemies movements, and then finishing them off when they had no where to run. Much to her displeasure she described how the Seven Shinobi Swordsman were well known for using the ability to disable half of a team and forcing them to watch as they killed off the other half before them. Naruto knew he could only be thankful that they had that reputation and tendencies. If Zabuza had chosen to take care of Kakashi the moment he caught him in the water prison, him and his entire team would be dead by now.

There was one thing that made him smile when he thought about this training though. Zabuza could of killed Kakashi, and the battle was over before it even began. Added to the fact that Haku could have stepped in at any time. The concept that those water users were not only stronger then Kakashi, but stronger than his entire team combined regardless of their injuries. Well... his entire team minus Kyuubi. The fox was just an unfair advantage in any circumstance. Regardless, the thought made him grin that he was learning some of the water jutsus that had been used by shinobi better than his sensei.

The next jutsu he came to learn over the week was very entertaining to watch when coupled with the fact he could do water jutsu "without a source" which of course was just pulling the molecules out of the air. The Water Wall, a standard water jutsu that became legendary in the hands of Konoha's Nidaime Hokage. The jutsu would create a spinning vortex of water around the user that operated like a shield. Due to it's spinning properties, it was nearly impenetrable by most jutsus. The only ones that could really stop the technique were solid earth techniques. Even the counter element, lightning, was rendered useless in the hands of the late Hokage. The water's current would merely provide a channel for the lightning to flow on before it would fizzle out like some weak fire cracker.

Naruto had also begun trying to create one jutsu that he felt could assist him in making this kenjutsu style he was learning even better. The problem was he was trying to learn it with one handed hand seals, because if he couldn't do it with one handed hand seals or without the use of seals, the technique was completely useless to him.

Naruto broke himself from his train of thought as he appeared in front of the shinobi clothing store. Much to his displeasure, he found both Sakura and Ino in one corner of the store, and he did his best not to be noticed. Mei despite the clothing she wore seemed to have a ton of money. She gave Naruto an absurd amount of cash to buy his clothing from the store, and she just said, "Get something nice, and blue." Naruto could barely contain his grin. He usually never had money to buy clothes that he wanted, so he stuck to the orange jumpsuit. However he did like blue, it matched his eyes quite well. Of course Naruto wasn't some fashion hound... but he did have a sense of what looked good and what didn't. It all came down to the money to buy it.

Naruto was already in quite impressive shape before his training with Mei. He just never showed off his figure due to the fact that he always wore baggy jumpsuits. The training Mei had him doing only further improved how toned his muscles were. The standard training of a civilian could take months to obtain a desired level of fitness, where with a shinobi it could be done in mere weeks with the assistance of chakra. One of the reasons Naruto couldn't help but be impressed with Lee whom didn't have that privilege and yet still kept in the best shape possible.

Now Naruto was by no means bursting at the seams with his muscles, but he did have muscles that were hard as a rock, that were hidden by his jump suit. Yet with the money in hand, he had the intent of buying something that showed off how hard he worked, and show everyone that he worked extremely hard at becoming a ninja contrary to popular belief.

Naruto walked over to the area of the store dedicated to pants and shorts among other things. He was doing good staying out of Ino and Sakura's line of sight as well. Naruto pulled some very dark blue overalls off the rack that he knew would loosely cling to his body, and the lower half would actually be quite loose on him. Naruto was a fan of overalls since he was a kid, mainly because before you can buy shinobi clothing you have to be in your final years of the academy. So in the meantime Naruto would always wear these green overalls over a black shirt with his green goggles and run around causing mass chaos.

Naruto did have a feeling though he would look rather nerdy wearing overalls, so he held onto them but did his best to try and find something else he could use to... "spice up" the outfit. He walked past a series of standard shinobi pants, something he didn't really want. He had been standing out his entire life, no point trying to conform now. Especially when it appeared that no one really gave a damn about him, particularly his "sensei" Kakashi. That thought naturally made him scowl, and brush his was past the typical chunin, jounin, and anbu pants that reminded him all too much of Kakashi's typical attire.

Naruto came across a rack with an assortment of different sashes and for a moment he for some reason became mesmerized and began thinking over his potential outfit in his head. There were numerous sashes just hanging there, typically worn by sword specialists, but on rare occasions by shinobi. They were mostly all in bright colors such as red, orange, and yellow. Likely trying to stay true to Konoha showing it's will of fire. However there were a few others, such as a simple black sash. There was one that did stand out from all of the rest, and he knew with Mei telling him to get something blue, she would love this. The sash was long, going down to the ankles. It only covered one side of his legs so it certainly would be an interesting contrast to see one leg covered to the ankle, and another showing the standard overall shorts that went a bit past his knees. When Naruto picked up the blue sash he realized that it had an intricate black design that reminded him of something along the lines of sea dragons, or sharks diving and reemerging on the water's surface. He quickly took it off the rack and draped it over his arm with a grin.

He now realized that with his current clothing, having any form of tool pouch would be rather odd, so he didn't even bother looking for them. It wasn't like the style he was working on with Mei was really reliant on ninja tools anyways. If something came up that changed that... well he could cross that path when he came to it.

Naruto walked to the other side of the room where there were several assortments of armors on the wall. It ranged from chain mail, to small bucklers, to full on gauntlets. Naruto when he saw the gauntlets could only grin. He had been doing things big his entire life, no point stopping now. 'Go big or go home right?' he thought to himself with an amused smile. He grabbed a gauntlet off the wall that would cover his entire left arm. The thing appeared to be flexible, but he still needed to try it on. The one thing he was happy about was that prospect of it being another way to block incoming attacks. He wielded his sword in his right hand, and most battles between two skilled opponents with a sword often revolved around a series of parries before a final blow. However if he could just snatch an opponents blade out of the air mid swing, and then cut him with Naruto's own water sword. While slightly dangerous, it was far more useful then anything else he could spot in this store.

Naruto didn't notice as he made his way to the changing room, but he had attracted the attention of both Ino and Sakura whom moved over to stand right outside the changing room waiting for him.

Ino moved with Sakura and sat down in the chairs just outside the changing room. "Why are we waiting here for Naruto?" Sakura asked dryly as her friend forced her to sit down and wait for the boy. It wasn't that Sakura hated Naruto, it was just he was so annoying with how much he asked her out. Why wouldn't he ever understands no means no?

Sakura had conveniently ignored the fact that Sasuke had told her no countless times as well, because frankly what did that have to do with anything really...?

Ino sighed, "Forehead, where have you been? How can you not be the slightest bit interested in Naruto right now?" Ino said in exasperation surprising Sakura sitting next to her. "Didn't you hear about his encounter with Neji? Nearly everyone from our class was there, where have you been? Naruto and Neji both got at each other's throats. I mean who would have thought that Naruto of all people would have made it to the finals?" Ino laughed a bit to herself, "And we called him the dead last." she said with a weak smile on her face.

Sakura pursed her lips at this information. She actually did hear about the encounter Naruto had with Neji, but really paid it no mind because she was all hung up on when Sasuke would be returning to the village. That thought put a sour taste in her mouth that she had so blatantly ignored one of her teammates in favor of another when they were both in the finals. What if Naruto needed her help or something? However this only brought up more questions, like why wasn't Kakashi-sensei training Naruto as well as Sasuke out of the village?

She didn't get her questions answered as Naruto walked out of the changing room. His outfit in her opinion was completely odd and stood out, but at the same time looked quite good. She would never admit it out loud, but Naruto looked good in blue. It matched his eyes.

Ino however was much more vocal in her opinion of his clothing. Between the whistling and playful cat calls she sent his way which promptly caused Naruto to spin around red in the face. "I love it Naruto, you look great." She said as she moved closer to the boy, "However the overalls... really?" She said as she shook her head.

Naruto currently had his overalls up, with the straps over his shoulders, however by Ino's look, he knew she felt that in her eyes it just didn't work and was not afraid to tell him.

Before Naruto could react, he was in Ino's grasp, and she was taking his arms out of the straps. She then proceeded to make light incisions into the sides of the overalls, and folded them over his waist and let the straps just hand there loosely, barely covering the lower half of the overalls or part of the sash.

"Ino! What are you doing! I haven't even bought these yet!" He said quickly gritting his teeth.

"Oh hush, I'm making you look good." She said as she waved her hand playfully as she continued to go to work on his clothing.

Sakura whom was just standing off on the sides this entire time thinking of all of the bad things she could say about Ino to Sasuke, like how she was all over Naruto in a clothing store suddenly stopped her train of thought. When Ino had pulled down the overalls and folded them on his waist, they both never expected for it to reveal tight six pack abs. It was common knowledge that you needed next to no body fat to be able to show off abs like that. Thus was the big mystery. 'How did this idiot...' she thought in wonder, 'how does he have such low body fat with how much he eats?' She got a red tint to her cheeks as she continued to look at Naruto and promptly looked away.

Ino on the other hand being far more confident and less shy then Sakura tapped her hand against Naruto's abs a couple times before saying, "Impressive! Someone has been working out eh Naruto?" she said with a wink which made the said blonde blush before she reached up to the boy's blue headband. She noticed as soon as she begun to untie it that he double wrapped the headband, hiding half of his length.

The action of her untying his headband nearly made Naruto push the girl off of him. That was one of the things he didn't want anyone to put their hands on. While he didn't like the news he heard about Iruka all those months ago, it was still one of the best gifts he had ever gained. He wasn't going to have some random person fuck it up. Although... at present time he was too surprised with the fact that he was this close to one, if not the, most popular girl in his graduating class as she fawned over him and touched his body. His teenage body was having a bit of trouble adjusting to the situation.

Ino quickly adjusted Naruto's headband in a way she felt would look best on him, and much to Naruto's surprise she adjusted it exactly to the way Zabuza had his headband on. Over the head with remaining length of the headband going down the side of his face.

Naruto took a step back from Ino and examined himself momentarily in the mirror. He had to admit, her look was a thousand times better then what he had worn before, but still he felt the need to throw out some form of a false time constraint. He felt that if he didn't soon, he would be stuck her modeling clothes for Ino all day. "Hey Ino, thanks for the help, but I really need to get going. You know, things to do, people to see? All of that stuff." he said quickly as he backed his way out of the changing room.

He gave a quick wave to Sakura, but nothing more then that as he briskly made his way to the counter. He dropped a bit more then the desired amount of money on the counter, not bothering to wait for his change and quickly made his way outside. Unfortunately for him it appeared that both Sakura and Ino were in the mood to follow him, like they had nothing better to do. On any other day, he would of loved the attention he was getting from the two girls... but not when he was busy training for the Finals.

Naruto rounded a corner a stopped as his gaze narrowed. In front of the shinobi weapon shop stood both Neji and Tenten. Neji was facing the opposite direction, with Tenten facing Naruto, albeit from a significant distance. Naruto held back a growl at the sight of the boy. Normally he wouldn't attack someone from behind, especially when intending to start a fight. However the fucking white eyed asshole had attacked him last time they met, and this time his ass was going down.

Naruto marched up at a rather quick place, preparing to hit the boy quite hard in the back of his head with his gauntlet encased fist. He was going to take much pride in knocking that "All seeing" girly looking prick to the ground.

Naruto rushed up in the final steps getting ready to attack the supposed Hyuuga prodigy, but this action was noticed by Tenten whom rushed in front of Naruto and nearly hugged him at the chest doing her best to hold back the impressively strong boy. "Naruto!" she said quickly as she tried her best to push him back several feet, which was nearly impossible until both Sakura and Ino whom were following him and stepped in and assisted the girl. There was no need for some brawl between the two to happen in the middle of the streets.

Naruto shocked at the fact that three people were restraining him couldn't help but voice his opinion when Neji turned around, "Let me at that girly bastard! I'll turn his white eyes black and blue!" he said as he shook against his human restraints.

Tenten turned to her teammate, "Neji get out of here, there is no need for another fight." Yet by the time she had said that she realized what her teammate intended to do.

The Hyuuga genius had since activated his family bloodline, and as Tenten stepped off from trying to restrain the blonde and moving to restraining her black haired teammate it was too late. The black haired genius was too quick. He once again had slid in and given Naruto a vicious palm thrust to the chest, while Naruto was being restrained by two girls whom thought they were helping the boy. The girls instantly let go of the boy on reflex when they saw the attack coming, hoping that Naruto would get out of the way. Yet Naruto could only slump to the floor and once again, luckily this time not coughing up blood. Through blurry vision he watched as the Hyuuga prodigy smirked and gave him a condescending stare and saying, "Give up Uzumaki, you are fated to lose against me always. It would only be foolish for you to intend to fight me at the finals." he said calmly before walking off.

Tenten had rushed over to Naruto nearly shouting in his ears a string of apologies with slightly teary eyes. She didn't know Naruto that well, but the fact of the matter was that her actions were the ones that caused him to get hurt. That fact alone hurt her own pride. With her role model being Tsunade, one of the Legendary Sannin, the greatest healer in the world. Her actions causing someone to get hurt, and having no way to help the boy afterwords... well it was a significant blow to her pride. She had intended to stop a fight, and thought that her teammate would have taken the high road. She knew that Neji could get violent, but the boy was never even that violent with Lee. She had no idea why this boy got on her teammate's bad side so easily. Neji wasn't one to just get angry and attack someone over a simple tournament. There had to be something more to this rivalry that was starting to grow between the two, something more then just the upcoming finals.

Naruto grit his teeth as he sat up, he wasn't in near as much pain at the first time, perhaps it was like he was used to the familiar burning in his chest. Still it didn't stop a scowl from spreading to his face as he stood on shaky legs. He looked down the long street as the Hyuuga prodigy turned the corner and his first thought was to chase after him. However he took a deep breath and relaxed himself. He knew he had things to take care of, but he did know there would be one place he would be visiting later.

The library.

XXXXXScene BreakXXXXX

XXXXXScene BreakXXXXX

Time skip, 7 days till the finals.

Naruto gave a heavy sigh as he walked down the street beside Mei. He was close to mastering the technique he had been working on. He had technically already accomplished his intended goal with the technique. He just wanted to try and be able to utilize the technique without hand seals to make the skill all the more powerful. The technique wasn't even hard really, it was merely a variation on another technique. However if he could do it without hand seals... it could prove to be one of the more deadly abilities out there, and in his arsenal.

That aside he did have fun learning several techniques over the course of the week. This week unlike last week it was mostly offensive techniques, much to Naruto's pleasure. The first jutsu was one he knew very well, hell how could he ever forget the first really destructive jutsu he had seen? The Water Dragon. When Mei had told him that he would be learning that, at first he wanted to laugh, until he realized that she was serious. She didn't even teach him the technique that required forty seals, she told him that shinobi from the hidden mist village once upon a time stole a scroll from an enemy village in hopes to learn several techniques. Among these techniques were genjutsu such as the bringer of darkness technique, but more importantly, the person they stole it from created a way to utilize the water dragon jutsu with a single hand seal? Truly an amazing feat. Unfortunately for her and the shinobi that stole the technique. The single hand seal was only viable for a water dragon if you had enough chakra to just override the need to use all of the seals to do the different chakra moldings required for the technique.

Now there was always a saying among shinobi, and civilians alike that goes something along the lines of "You need to learn to crawl before you can walk, you need to learn to walk before you can run." essentially saying that there was an order in the way things get done. Naruto found out this week that Mei did not believe in that order, at least when it came to training. Naruto felt that if she was an instructor teaching students how to swim, she would take them into the center of a lake, and push them off and telling them to swim to shore. Dangerous, but usually quite effective. So when Mei had come to him and told him that if he didn't get this technique right, he would blow off his arms... well he chose to stick to it but be extra careful... which meant using clones as sacrificial lambs as he began to learn the technique. Later on however after mastering the technique and realizing none of his close actually had their arms explode, Mei had in fact told him that she had lied. Naruto felt like an idiot.

The next technique he learned over the course of the week was extremely useful and in reality Naruto thought it was the perfect offensive water jutsu. The Water Fang Bullet. The deadly technique was simple yet effective. You could conjure yourself up tiny little whirlpools in the water that could rise up still having the spinning motion on the water. The current that is applied to the rising water gives it the potential to maim the opponent quite effectively. The fact that you can make them sprout up virtually anywhere there is water only adds to the dangers of the technique.

The last technique that Naruto was able to perfect this week was quite simple, much to contrary belief. The problem with the jutsu was the required amounts of chakra that were needed to perform it. Added to the fact that Naruto had been learning to perform this jutsu without an initial water source... well the technique would be nearly impossible. Mei had told him that only two people in history, at least to her knowledge, had been able to perform such a feat without a water source. The technique was commonly used to create a watery battle field, fueling the power of any water user out there. Yet for Naruto this technique was mainly a way to quickly perform the ability to draw water from the air. Naruto didn't personally feel the technique was that useful for him, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth on the subject.

As Naruto walked down the street with Mei in step with him, he could barely contain his smile. The thought that he had come so far in such little time? All he needed was the experience, and he knew that he would become quite the shinobi. This was something Mei also took time to acknowledge and she even told him that she would try and figure out a way for Naruto to gain some experience before the exams.

Yet his happy and cheerful mood instantly turned cold as he rounded the corner on a restaurant. He then remembered exactly why he had been training, and why he had gone to the library for information. That white eyed pretty boy was sitting in the outside area of the BBQ restaurant where they initially had their first encounter. Naruto grit his teeth at the thought of all of the encounters he had with the boy over the past month.

Mei had caught eye of Naruto's sudden stop and attempted to reach out a hand to keep him calm, but it was far too late for that.

Naruto had begun his approach.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX Meantime at the table with Neji XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The table was littered with several Konoha shinobi that had made it to the preliminary rounds of the exams. Kurenai's team was absent from the table, although she was present. Sure she was not the greatest fan of the Hyuuga male sitting at the table, but she wasn't going to let that boy get in the way of her spending time with her boyfriend, Asuma.

Asuma had all of his genin here, and he had for the majority of the month had a fourth member of the team that was Sakura. Despite how much both Ino and Sakura fought each other, they still remained friends, even if distant. This only became even more evident after their battle at the preliminaries for the exam. Yet he had to admit, as bratty at the two could get, they were both rather amusing and fun company to have around. Especially with the fact that until just recently, both Shikamaru and Chouji were wrapped up with their families most of the time training.

Shikamaru sat at the table leaning his head back over his chair. He was tired, and that much was obvious to everyone around the table. When his dad had found out that he had made it to the chunin exams, despite the lazy attitude that they both shared, they had both decided to dive right into training for the finals. However the day to day training wasn't so bad... at least until this week where it had begun to take a toll on his chakra coils. It was one of the main reasons as to why he had free time right now to go out with his friends. He wasn't supposed to be training. From now on, he would just work on strategy with his dad at night before bed, and a bit more in the mornings before he went in to get his assignments for the day.

Sakura and Ino spent their time at the table chatting amongst themselves. They both were throwing ideas back and forth about what exactly Sasuke was learning from Kakashi during this one month period. However as they began to talk more and more, not only just now, but over the last month about what Sasuke could be learning... Naruto came into conversation. Now it was not typical in the slightest for Naruto to be the topic of conversation for the girls. However this month, not only just them, but nearly anyone who lived in Konoha had been thinking a bit about the young Uzumaki. The word of his encounters with the Hyuuga had only served to spread across the Village, and rumors spread by Yamanaka Ino spread like a cancer.

The final trio worth mentioning at the table were that of Gai's team... well... of the members that could walk that is. Lee was still held up in the hospital gravely injured. Tenten had actually shot up several notches on Naruto's favorite people list. Ever since she essentially assisted Neji in getting Naruto injured, she had been coming by his house almost daily to check up on him. If Naruto was honest with himself, it grew to be almost annoying. Yet she still insisted on checking up on him, and showing him that she was sorry. While it was a sweet and kind thing to do, there was no way it was going to stop him from getting Neji back. Especially after the entire village had gotten word of Naruto getting his ass handed to him twice by Neji, when the cheap bastard only decided to attack him at times he is not expecting it or couldn't fight back. Gai was the final member of the team whom didn't know how to act with the current situation. He prided himself with having the most "Youthful" students around. Yet this tournament had shown him that one of his students had fallen farther then he could of imagined. Crippling your cousin? Attacking fellow Konoha shinobi multiple times? Gai didn't know if he should stand behind his student and support him, or if he should support his eternal rival's student.

The group sat at the table calmly talking, they had more than likely just finished eating and were just sitting around talking and drinking their sodas. Though the group's topic was one that the village had been stumbling onto continuously.

"Neji, I still don't understand how you could do that! I was holding Naruto back so that you wouldn't have to fight! Why would you go and attack him?" Tenten said through gritted teeth. Everyone at the table knew that the subject was extremely touchy for the weapon user, and that she felt an extreme amount of guilt about what happened.

Neji stayed silent and calmly took a sip of his soda before replying, "The kid is a failure. Whether I attacked him or not had no consequences. The boy is not going anywhere, and he is nothing special, his academy records show that just fine. The fact that the Inuzuka had lost to the boy should bring shame upon his family."

The group stayed silent at that, Kurenai giving the boy narrowed eyes as she let the boy's words sink in. She was tempted on putting the boy into a multi-layered genjutsu until she saw a couple turn the corner down the block.

She saw Naruto and strangely enough that same woman whom Naruto decided to eat with a couple weeks ago walking down the block. That was until Naruto stopped dead in his tracks before clenching his fists. She knew exactly what was going to happen. She could only hope the young Uzumaki wasn't the one whom ended up hurt once again.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Back to Naruto XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto threw caution to the wind and briskly moved in with a slight jog that slowed to a quick walk as he grew closer to the table. Mei had taught him a lot of things other than just jutsus over the month. Such as a shinobi being in control of their emotions was like an unspoken rule? Well Naruto told himself 'Fuck the rules, I have never listened to them anyways.'

Naruto quickly rushed up to the black gate that seperated the restaurant from the street and Neji had his back to, and he promptly got the attention of everyone at the table. However most were too surprised by his appearance to even say anything. It is too bad for Neji that his eyes couldn't see full circle at all times, or he would have seen this coming.

"Hyuuga Neji!" Naruto yelled as he grabbed the boy by the neck with one hand and the back of his shirt with another. "I am not going to wait for the finals!" Naruto yelled as he threw the boy over the gate and caused him to roll several feet through the street. His white Hyuuga robes were now covered in dirt and dust stains.

The Hyuuga prodigy was quick to get up with a glare of Narrowed eyes and activated his Byakugan in an instant, sliding into his families fighting stance.

Naruto however paid no mind as he backed up to the table ever so slightly, reaching behind him to grab the alcoholic drink that Kurenai had since poured into her cup. The others at the table had expected her to protest, particularly Gai. However Kurenai could very well care less what happened to the Hyuuga prodigy, and frankly was hoping Naruto was able to give the boy a significant injury.

"You back stabbing, white eyed, girly haired, little bitch!" Naruto said a string of curses as Neji's muscles tensed as he prepared to slide in for what Naruto didn't know, but happened to be several well aimed tenketsu attacks that would have left the boy immobile.

Neji slid in quickly preparing to strike out with both hands, and everyone at the table thought Naruto was once again going to get his ass handed to him by the branch member. Yet, Naruto once again surprised them. He pivoted to the right, letting the first strike pass right by him as he caught the boy's other hand with his free hand. Naruto then Used Kurenai's alcoholic drink and splashed it into the boy's eyes. The boy didn't even see it coming, a family prided on being able to see everything closed their eyes as rarely as possible to keep up with everything happening in the battle field.

The key problem with any of the eye techniques of Konoha that many fail to realize is simple. They actually have to be actively looking at you for them to work at all.

Neji closed his eyes in pain, no longer seeing in his perfect full circle vision and spun around trying to get the burning substance out of his eyes.

"Hey Neji!" Naruto yelled as he cracked his fists before sliding into a fighting stance, "Come finals, your ass belongs to me!"

Several people at the table had their eyes open wider in surprise as Naruto slid into the fighting stance. "Hey..." Tenten began as she stared at Naruto in surprise. Gai finished her statement with slight disbelief in his voice, "The gentle fist fighting stance?" he said in a low whisper.

Neji spun around to Naruto, having since cleared a bit of alcohol from his eyes. Neji turned to Naruto and looked at him with blurry vision, but any movement the boy could have seen, he had no time to react to.

Naruto slid in with the fighting stance that Neji had used the past two times to attack him. It only felt just that Naruto return the favor. He could only hope that his trips to the library to uncover exactly how the stance worked would pay off.

Naruto reached his palm back, gathering chakra in it before violently hitting the Hyuuga in the chest. The effect was instantaneous. The boy curled over Naruto's hand gasping violently in pain before shooting off down the street a good fifteen to twenty feet.

Everyone at the table was wide eyed in surprise, and most couldn't help but feel the slightest bit happy at the Hyuuga getting kicked around by Naruto now.

"Oh my god!" Ino exclaimed like a giddy schoolgirl as she grabbed Sakura by the shoulders and shook her, "Naruto just used the Hyuuga family signature style to get back at Neji? Can you believe how many people are going to start talking about this after I spread this around?" Ino said with the slightest glint in her eyes that made anyone whom knew the gossip queen well get a bit of a sweat drop in the back of their heads.

Gai, Kurenai and Asuma had all stayed silent as their students got into a bit of back and forth bickering about what had just transpired. They watched and prepared to step in at any time as Naruto walked over to the now fallen Hyuuga prodigy. They couldn't shake from their mind the simple idea that was, 'That... was not how the Hyuuga fighting stance was supposed to go...'

However Gai could finish the thought as he looked at the young Uzumaki in wonder and then down the street to the young woman in ragged blue clothes. 'It didn't look intentional but... Naruto just used the basic steps of Tsunade's legendary taijutsu...'

Naruto paid no mind to all of the crowd that had now gathered around the group of them. He was too busy sifting through all the memories that flooded his head as he thought about his encounters with the boy laying at his feet. Naruto sighed deeply and reached into one of the very few pockets he had on his clothing now, and pulled out a roll of several papers held together with a string and a little tag hanging off of it.

The tag read, The Gentle Fist. The copies of the fighting stance he pulled from the library. Now who is the Hyuuga to say that the fighting stance is useless without the byakugan? Naruto didn't know a damn thing about the style, all he wanted to do was read through the basics of it, and learn that palm thrust to turn the white eyed girly boy into a heap of trash on the ground.

Naruto set the scroll down right by Neji's face and walked away.

However if he had stuck around longer, he probably would have grinned at what he heard Ino say.

"Did you see that Forehead! Naruto gave the signature Hyuuga palm thrust, to Hyuuga Neji! How personal can this get!" she asked in an excited tone. Even if the event had occured several minutes ago. Everyone couldn't help but admit that the blonde's energy had been rubbing off on everyone else at the table, and they couldn't help but grin at what the girl was saying.

"Can you imagine what it is going to be like at the Finals!" she yelled as she slammed her hand on the table with a huge grin.

Everyone at the table had thought something along the lines of, 'When word of this gets out? I doubt that Uchiha Sasuke vs Gaara of the Desert will be the most awaited match of the finals...'

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Alright there you have it. Originally this chapter was going to be split in two parts (a week each). However I felt it was too short. So I responded to all of the reviews that asked any questions, I know this for a fact :). If I didn't, it was because I didn't feel your review was worded as a question, or you did not allow me to send you a PM. A person however did have a good question, where I couldn't PM him.

"Are you going to be anywhere near the end within the 40k words you have written already?" Answer: Hell no. HEEEELLLLLL NO...

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Some of you may like or dislike how I have depicted all of the characters in this chapter. I am usually heavily against bashing of characters, and as such you see me making Sakura and Ino actually rather decent people. Everyone has their own explanations for their actions, and if characters ever get highlighted in my story, no matter how minor, are usually going to have their actions and reasoning explained. (Example: Kurenai. Cares less about Neji for what he did to Hinata, and insulting Kiba. However she doesn't care much about Naruto either being bitter at the fact he beat Kiba with such lame luck.)

I will also note that you aren't really seeing any character development between Naruto and Mei and just a lot of the training is being glossed over. I understand this as well. A lot of development will happen after the invasion. I really wanted All of the characters that will be developed during pre time skip to be around before I really start show casing everyone.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and a lot of comments were brought up about wind chakra and Naruto's seal Orochimaru placed on him. The seal will be addressed. I don't really know about my plans for wind chakra.

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Anyways please review, again they have been a major help. Someone actually pointed out and reminded me of some things I said in the first part of the story that really saved some continuity faults. So I would like to thank Ackley Gale. Without his review I really could have screwed some stuff up without realizing it. So thank you again.

I will end it here saying Please review, like the above paragraph, every week something gets pointed out that I do end up going back and correcting. I also have seen a few interesting ideas in these reviews that I may implement into the story at some point.

So every one of your thoughts and comments on this story helps, and I do respond and take all of this to heart. So this wraps up the chapter, and it also wraps up the "Hype" phase before the exam. So on a scale on 1 to 10 how well do you think Hype was created for the battle? Please give a rating and a little information as to why it is rated as such. Anyways everyone have fun.

Also, no ifs ands or buts, the chunin exams will be 1 chapter per fight. So if I dabble into a 3.5k word chapter somewhere? Don't complain.

Quick chapter replace here not even an hour later. What I mean by 1 chapter per fight, I am not including Temari or Sasuke's canon fights. hint hint?

Another Chapter replace that corrected some typos in the story. My apologies.

Also a note to add for people questioning the outfit. The outfit Naruto wears is a near replica of the outfit Jecht(from Final Fantasy X) wears. I felt it would fit into Naruto's fighting style, and even have future plans revolving around that gauntlet of his. So yeah... if you can't visualize the outfit. Check out that picture. (I think it is the overalls that throw people off honestly.)