Chapter 4.

A pair of dark eyes narrowed. His mark had been acquired. It was now time to strike. Reaching for his Tanto, the male figure jumped, unsheathing it mid-air, before striking down at his target – only for his target to poof into a log. 'What a quick substitution.' The assassin mused, immediately turning to his left to see his target casually standing on the rooftop across from him.

"And who might you be?" The target asked without a care in the world, his head slightly tilted for his glasses to reflect the moonlight and conceal his eyes.

"Who I am is unimportant. What is important is that your execution has been ordered by Danzo-sama."

Kabuto raised an interested eyebrow as his opponent, a Genin from the exam he recalled, unravelled a scroll which suddenly sprouted a rather fierce looking tiger seemingly made from ink.

"Oh? Interesting. Well, come then." Kabuto said as his palms were engulfed with a visible layer of chakra. Sai was immediately upon him, faster than Kabuto had ever seen a Genin move. He narrowly dodged the vertical strike from the ROOT agent's blade, immediately counter attacking with viciously accurate stabs from his hands.

Sai seemed to be aware of his ability with the bastardized version of a medic's Chakra Scalpels and neatly dodged, trying to herd Kabuto into the bared fangs of his ink tiger.

Kabuto smirked. "Not bad."

It had been a month. One month of the hardest and most intense work Naruto had ever undergone. Not only did he experience unreal physical levels of exhaustion, his mental capacities were strained double time by none other than the harshest task master he had ever known: Jiraiya the Sannin.

Such thoughts floated through his mind as he lay on the ground panting, tired, bruised and battered with said man standing over him.

"How're your arms, kiddo?" Jiraiya asked with genuine concern.

"How were yours after a certain blonde Sannin caught you trying to use me to look mature and responsible to hit on some hot girl you had a hard-on for?" Naruto bit back instantly, sitting up slowly.

"Hmm, I can relate then." Jiraiya casually replied before grabbing a shirtless Naruto around the waist and hoisting him over the large shoulders, only to drag him to the nearby river and dump him in it unceremoniously. Too tired to meld any chakra successfully, Naruto plunged straight through the water's surface to be swallowed by its refreshingly cool depths.

Moments later he surfaced, letting out a sigh of contentment as he started floating on the water's surface, facing the sky and letting the sun warm him.

His eyes trailed down his chest to the seal faintly visible on his stomach. Everything seemed to be in order, his father's seal as strong as ever.

Slowly turning his head to observe the special seals on his arm, Naruto's thoughts drifted to what would be happening in two days' time and all he had done in the past month.

Unfortunately said thoughts were broken by the impact of Jiraiya into the water right next to him, the man making some sort of gurgling sound as he proceeded to break the tranquillity of Naruto's relaxation and contemplation.

Naruto sighed. It appeared as if the Ero-sennin had been caught peeping on the women bathing by the water fall a few hundred meters up the stream.

A minute or two later the Sannin emerged with a highly satisfied smile on his face, completely ignorant of the large two bumps his head sprouted from his customary beating.

"You ready to leave?" Naruto asked in exasperation as his hunger made itself known through a loud rumble.

"If all competitors except for Naruto and Hyuuga Neji could please proceed to the balcony so we can get this show on the read, then." The Jonin named Genma requested.

Sasuke walked past Naruto and gave him a minute nod of acknowledgement, which the blonde simply returned with a smirk. The only way for them to fight was for both to reach the finals, something Sasuke aspired to do. He knew he had improved leaps and bounds over the last month of intense training and wanted to see how he measured up against the strongest peer he knew of.

Naruto now wore a plain black long sleeve sweater with an orange spiral on his chest, much like Kakashi preferred to wear under his vest. The sleeves were pushed up to his elbows. Well-fitting black shinobi pants were taped at the top of his sandals.

He turned to face his opponent, Neji, who stood a few meters away with a look of utter confidence as he regarded everything around him to be beneath him. Cracking his neck and loosening his shoulders, Naruto crossed his arms as Genma went over the rules again.

"Fight!"

Naruto didn't move, his arms still crossed, regarding his opponent with calculating eyes. Neji stared back unflinchingly.

The crowd grew silent in anticipation.

"Any last words?" Neji taunted with confidence, a ghost of a smirk dancing along his mouth as he saw Naruto narrow his eyes.

"Yeah," Naruto spoke evenly, before vanishing instantly and reappearing behind Neji , brandishing a kunai, "fuck you."

Neji's pale eyes widened as his brain tried to process the fact that Naruto was now behind him. Sheer reflex allowed him to barely dodge the swipe at his neck. Neji leapt backwards, activating his Byakugan along the way. Once more he found himself surprised as he was surrounded by ten copies of Naruto, having formed a casual ring around him.

One of them, presumably the real one, spoke, "Y'know Neji, I did a bit of research on you and the famed Hyuuga Clan before today. A pretty impressive history, riddled with tales of great battles and of course, your famed Kekkei genkai, the Byakugan or as some like to call it, the All-Seeing Eye, and by proxy the ability to use the Gentle Fist Taijutsu style."

Narrowing his eyes, Neji scanned around him in an attempt to locate the real one in order to make the most of free time his opponent was giving him.

Naruto seemed completely oblivious of the fact and merely continued, "What intrigued me more though, was the internal clan structure that persists to this day. A Main Branch and a Cadet Branch with the Cadets essentially being no more than glorified slaves to the Main Branch, bearing a seal to, and I quote, 'prevent the Byakugan from falling into the hands of enemies should a Hyuuga die in battle.' And this is where I'd like to point out your hypocrisy about your little 'fate' talk."

Growing annoyed, Neji spat, "And what would you know? You're a nobody, you don't even have a last name! Fate has decreed that I will utterly defeat you right here, right now. You cannot escape fate."

Once more, Naruto ignored him and continued on casually, "You see, it is the duty of every Cadet Branch member to protect the Main Branch with their very lives if needed, which is exactly what your father did to protect his twin brother, the current head of the clan: Hyuuga Hiashi."

By now Naruto had captivated the entire audience with his story. Up in the stands several of the Hyuuga Clan looked surprised and angered at a mere Genin being privy to this information and making it public.

"Shut your mouth you-" Neji angrily demanded, before being cut off by Naruto.

"And that's where the hypocrisy comes in. You tried to kill Hyuuga Hinata. While it is arguable that the immediate rules of the preliminary exam took precedence over your Clan's laws, a good Cadet Branch member would have never acted like you did even in the presence of the Hokage who ordered you to stand down. In fact, I'm sure that many of them would have forfeited straight up in order to further the Main Branch's member's career. After all, that is your fate, is it not? The seal on your forehead would be proof of that, I believe. Your fate, by your own logic, is servitude. If everyone is bound by fate, then why do you struggle so much against your own by hating on your cousin so much, hmm?"

Naruto took a breath before his face turning very grim. "And me knowing shit about fate? Trust me, I know a lot about fate. Mine's far heavier than yours. And you know what? Screw that, I'll make my own fate." Naruto's clones cracked their knuckles and started their charge. "Oh, and about me being a nobody? We'll see about that."

Sliding into the basic Gentle Fist stance, Neji started fighting the clones. He was surprised at their agility, speed and power. He ducked under a round house kick and barely managed to divert a kick aimed at his midsection, not even giving him time to attempt and dispel a single clone. His mouth twitched in discomfort as he felt the power of the kicks behind the blond clones attacks and wondered how hard the original would hit.

Growing tired of the constant dodging, he leapt backwards to dodge an overhead axe kick before his eyes blazed in determination. 'No choice, I have to use it.'

"Kaiten!" He yelled out as he immediately began rotating on the spot, expelling chakra through his tenketsu points, blowing away all of the clones surrounding him and destroying them.

In the stands a certain clan head's eyes widened in surprise at the technique.

"Not bad, not bad at all." Naruto drawled. "I respect your seriousness in fighting me and by such will show you the same courtesy."

Naruto mentally prepared himself. A Hyuuga would be ultimate test for Jiraiya's style of Taijutsu.

Rushing in straight up was the least thing Neji expected – no one except for Gai or Lee were dumb enough to challenge a Hyuuga head on in close combat.

Dodging Naruto's fist, Neji launched a rapid combination of basic Gentle Fist strikes, his palms glowing faintly.

Much to his surprise, Naruto sidestepped the flurry of strikes before landing a firm back-handed strike across the Hyuuga's face.

This continued for a while. Neji would attempt to strike Naruto in rapid succession, who would retaliate by narrowly dodging and countering extremely quickly, attacking from angles that took advantage of Neji's extended form which would make them unable to be blocked.

Neji growled. He would have to reveal his other ace in the hole as he couldn't land a single clean strike on Naruto. Another one of his palm strike patterns was barely evaded before he felt his blonde opponent grab onto his wrist. With a strong tug, Neji lost balance and fell forward, his abdomen directly colliding with the incoming knee strike from Naruto.

Coughing up spit from the strike, Neji found his balance before ripping his arm out of Naruto's grip and leaping away. His activated eyes saw Naruto's chakra flare for a moment and his eyes widened as he saw the blonde appear behind him before a hard elbow strike hit the Hyuuga prodigy in the jaw.

Neji could feel the blood in his mouth from a split lip as he stood up and wearily regarded his enemy. Naruto seemed content to let Neji regain his breath.

"Not so superior anymore, huh?" Naruto asked rhetorically. "You see, the weakness of the Byakugan and the Gentle Fist style is the same as the Uchiha's Sharingan: speed. You can see whatever you want but it's all useless if your body can't keep up with. And by the same token, what you can't keep up with you can't hit, especially since your Taijutsu requires precision clear shots at vitals. Let me show you what a nobody like me can do. I'm no genius, I'm just a hard worker. You're about to learn the difference between you and me."

Naruto's proclamation had inspired two green-spandex clad shinobi to cry and hug each other while yelling at the top of their lungs yet his next display would silence them in shock.

Wriggling his fingers and toes, Naruto channelled his chakra into his limbs and then took off, far faster than earlier. Neji saw him clearly, flying at him at unreal speeds. Before Neji had even raised his arms to block, Naruto's kick impacted into his side, sending him flying a few meters across the ground in a tumble.

Reacting faster this time, Neji bent his knees with one arm straightened and lowered to his knee-line and his other arm stretched out behind him. Hiashi in the stands immediately recognized the technique and raised his eyebrows in surprise. That, just like the Kaiten, was a Main Branch exclusive technique.

As Neji let the first two strikes of his technique fly, his eyes tracked his own fingers, almost moving towards the incoming body of Naruto in perceived slow motion. A mere centimetre before his index and middle finger could strike at Naruto's shoulder, the blonde twisted around his outstretched arm, letting his own elbow loose and strike into Neji's temple. Time seemed to stand still as Neji lost all his momentum and flew off his feet, impacting into the solidary tree located in the arena.

Neji struggled to not lose consciousness and give into the inviting darkness. 'I cannot lose to him! It's my fate to win!'

"Not done yet? Not bad." Naruto said, once more kicking up dust as he leapt at the barely standing Neji whose eyes blazed in determination.

"Kaiten!" He exclaimed mid-rotation. Naruto was quite surprised that he still had enough left in him for one of those and barely managed to leap up to avoid the spinning chakra dome that would certainly hurt if he ran straight at it.

His hands flashed through a set of seals before he slammed his palm on the ground.

"Doton: Swamp of the Underworld!"

The area around the spinning Neji immediately turned into a swamp. Given the rotational effect of the technique, Neji automatically sunk deeper and deeper into the swamp. By the time he realized what was happening it was too late. The moment he cancelled the technique the heavy mud closed in around him and locked him in place with only his head sticking out of the ground.

His tired eyes spotted Naruto at the edge of the drying mud now that it had no chakra to sustain itself on. "That's what I call game, set, match. See, Neji, it's not about fate. It's not about names or blood lines. Everything can be beaten, everything can be countered – the only limitation you have is yourself. You have a pair of perfectly capable hands, command immediate respect with your Hyuuga name and have incredible resources available to you as both a ninja of this village and member of the Hyuuga clan. Your fate is what you build for yourself, what you fight and strive for day by day. I told you I'd beat you, and that wasn't predestined. That was the result of me working crazy hard for as far as I can remember. I made my own fate, as you just experienced. Sure, it's not fair that you're in the Cadet Branch and that your father had to sacrifice himself for the sake of your uncle. But, so what? As far as I read, it was your father's decision in the first place. He chose that fate for himself. We're both shinobi, we know that life isn't fair; it's just a matter of what we do with what we have. I hope you've learnt a lesson here."

With a nod to Genma, the senbon-chewing proctor smiled and announced, "Winner: Naruto!"

A bone-chilling scream echoed through the arena as Sasuke withdrew his now blood-covered hand from Gaara's shoulder.

Kabuto immediately worked on the wide area Genjutsu.

The invasion had begun.

An explosion in the Kage's box sounded through the arena, quickly followed by the dozens of clangs produced by metal hitting metal as the Konoha shinobi immediately engaged the Oto and Suna nins, who seemed taken aback by their preparedness.

Almost lazily, Kakashi slammed a kunai into the temple of a nearby Oto nin, before he leaned forward as if he were to pick up something from the ground, dodging a vicious kick the process. The Cyclops flicked his wrist, resulting in another kunai whizzing through the air, slicing through the airborne enemy's jugular vein.

The kunai continued its flight undeterred by the throat it had just sliced, only to be kicked by none other than the fabulous Maito Gai by the handle, launching it into the eye socket of an approaching Suna ninja.

In an almost comical fashion, Gai bent backwards at the waist and kicked another Oto nin in the chin, sending the man flying into the air where he was met by the airborne from of Kakashi who slammed his chakra enhanced elbow into the man's sternum, ending his life.

"Yosh! We make a most youthful duo, eternal rival of mine!" Gai exclaimed, punching another one in the throat before sending him into a nearby wall with a spinning kick.

"Hmm, you say something Gai?" Kakashi asked casually after having impaled two Suna nin with a pair of rock spikes.

"Curse you and your hip attitude, Kakashi!"

A gigantic serpent rammed its head into the outermost wall of Konoha, crumbling it in the process. Oddly enough, none of the nearby Leaf nin made a move to stop it, focusing on the enemy shinobi instead.

A lone figure strolled through the street, the fights around her raging in full force as she calmly walked towards the rampaging summon. Her green jacket fluttered in the wind generated by a nearby fight. The hungry snake seemed to notice her and decided on making her its first meal of the day.

Which, of course, had been the wrong decision.

Tsunade easily leapt to the side to dodge the gigantic head and fangs. Using a nearby building as a spring board, she catapulted herself into the air, high above the snake. Her hands were a blur and ended in a seal as she reached the apex of her flight.

Fights seemed to stop in the immediate vicinity as a tremendous chakra outline shone into view behind her, mimicking her movement.

Gravity took its natural course as Tsunade flew towards her target, her eyes blazing with determination, her huge chakra form behind her. Cocking back her right first, she slammed downward once in range.

"Divine Fist of Judgement!" She roared as her massively empowered fist and its chakra counterpart impacted on the snake's head, instantly crushing the summoned creature.

A large crater was left at the point of impact, which Tsunade walked out of nonchalantly. She didn't look winded, she didn't look hurt at all. In fact, she looked annoyed at best.

"Who else wants some?" She yelled, picking out the nearest Suna nin. With a burst of speed worthy of her S-Ranked status, she appeared at the terrified Suna nin's side, backhanding him with a chakra induced arm, his brain splattering all over the sidewalk.

And so, Tsunade began to systematically slaughter every nearby enemy, inspiring Konoha's forces to push the invaders out of their home.

Orochimaru growled. This wasn't going his way, at all. His plan had been to single out his former sensei, The God of Shinobi, Sarutobi Hiruzen. That part had worked out fine, his barrier had been erected by his Sound Four. What he hadn't counted on was the presence of Jiraiya, disguised as Sarutobi's assistant.

Sarutobi was old, yes, but his moniker had been given to him for a reason. Even though he was far past his prime, The God of Shinobi was still an S-Ranked ninja capable of giving anyone a run for their money. Orochimaru was no fool and knew that, which is why he had prepared his forbidden techniques to summon the aid of the past Kages and kill his old mentor once and for all.

Of course, his fool of a teammate, Jiriya, would have none of that and revealed himself the second Orochimaru used the technique, countering with that damned Swamp of the Underworld technique to drown away his half-summoned coffins and lose them forever.

While the loss of the technique in this fight would not have been that great of an issue as Orochimaru had been confident in defeat against Sarutobi without it, Jiraiya's presence was. While a perverted loudmouth of a fool, Jiraiya was also an S-Ranked ninja and was much closer to his prime than their shared sensei. And while he despised him, Orochimaru knew exactly that Jiraiya was powerful enough to battle him head on in an even fight.

Even with all his scientific additions and modifications to his entity, Orochimaru knew it'd be a matter of time before one of their combinations would work. Sarutobi knew more jutsu than even himself and Jiraiya was a genius in terms of unorthodox Ninjutsu and Fuinjutsu.

But, if he just fled now they would easily repel the rest of the invasion.

So Orochimaru decided to stall. Before he could even say a word, Hiruzen Sarutobi was upon him, viciously striking at his former student with determination burning in him to bring him to justice.

Naruto, on the other hand, was in a bit of a more chaotic dilemma. Gaara had transformed into some grotesque semi-humanoid and seemed to be having the time of his life in beating the stuffing out of Sasuke, who had followed him when Gaara had escaped the stadium with the aid of his siblings.

After Gaara had angrily thrown his siblings aside both his arms had started transforming into something that Sasuke was almost entirely sure wasn't human. Despite Gaara's newly acquired sluggish and bulky appearance, it did nothing to hinder his movement or agility; in fact, his speed seemed to increase with each angry leap the crazed Suna Genin made.

Sasuke's chakra resources were quickly dwindling, having already used a Chidori certainly didn't help. He had spent a lot of his previous month working on increasing his reserves, learning a few jutsu and improving his physical capabilities. Easily the fastest Genin of his entire graduating year, Sasuke could safely say that he could even match many Chunin in terms of physical prowess, but against this opponent it still wasn't enough. Along with his eyes Sasuke could read every move Gaara did before he actually did them, but the problem was that even if he could see them and even block in time, Gaara hit so hard that the only option was to dodge.

The Uchiha barely dodged another swipe of Gaara's tremendous right arm, only to get slammed by Gaara's other arm, sending him flying through several tree branches before coming to a stop against the trunk of a larger one.

'Damn,' Sasuke mused, 'is this how it ends? Here, against some crazy demon? If I couldn't beat him, there's no way I could ever take on Itachi…'

He didn't have a drop of chakra left. He could feel the side of his neck stinging – the little mark Orochimaru left with whatever sorcery he performed was burning up. Much to Sasuke's surprise he could feel an oppressing presence in the back of his mind, weighing him down. The sound of snakes slithering rang in his ears but on an instinctual level, Sasuke knew there were no snakes around him.

As the presence became more forceful, Sasuke clutched his head and fought to not let out a low growl. He could feel Gaara a moderate distance away, obviously searching for him.

Gritting his teeth, Sasuke fumbled around his kunai holster attached to his leg… He could feel the power of the Snake Sannin getting stronger and stronger, whispering to him pleasures of power with just a not-so-subtle hint of insanity. Without Sasuke's prompt his Sharingan Eyes activated, which would have surprised him on any other day of the week given his lack of chakra. The tomoes in his eyes began to spin wildly and Sasuke felt his grasp on reality slip and slip, sending him into a frenzied panic.

He didn't want to lose his mind. He didn't want Orochimaru to get into his thoughts. He didn't want his power. He'd seen a Genin, of same age as himself, fight Orochimaru head to head and come out on top. Itachi, oh how he despised that name, had left the village in his pursuit of power, just like this voice in his head was trying to get him to. But he'd be damned if he followed the footsteps of his bastard brother.

So, with his desperation growing stronger, Sasuke's shaky fingers found the ring at the end of one of his kunai's handles, sliding it out of the protective holster.

'I won't let you have me!' He screamed resolutely in his mind, clumsily slicing through the seal with his kunai, letting out a grunt at the sensation of his blood spilling onto his shirt. Sasuke prayed he didn't cut deep enough to permanently injure himself, but he could feel the seal react. A loud screech reverbed through his mind, followed by a flash of pain. The last thing Sasuke felt was an odd sense of calm and pride, having fended off the dark influence and having made sure that his mind was his own and no one else's to play around with.

"And they call me crazy…" Naruto muttered under his breath. He was crouched next to Sasuke and had quickly bandaged the wound to prevent the Konoha nin from bleeding out right there and then. "But I gotta admit, it takes a lot of balls and perhaps some stupidity to just physically attempt to destroy a seal of Orochimaru's creation."

Without making a hand sign, a clone popped into existence who picked Sasuke up piggy back style. "Find Ero-Sennin, tell him what happened."

And so the clone hopped away. Just in time too, as Naruto was already in a flurry of motion as he ducked under a violent swipe from Gaara's demonic arm.

"Why hello there Gaara, long time no see!" He remarked as he dodged another swipe. A flick of his hands later and they were covered in his trademark gauntlets. Naruto wriggled his fingers a top a tree's branch, relishing in the smooth sensation of his gloves coating his fingers. He glanced down at his clones fighting Gaara who had not yet realized that the one dodging his assault was just a clone. The real Naruto formed two gauntlet covered fists, slamming the knuckles together; resulting in several lightning sparks flying through the air. A crackling sound could be heard as erratically flowing chakra covered his fists. A typical sign of lightning chakra.

"No idea if this'll work," Naruto said to himself, "but since sand is hypothetically derived from Earth manipulation, this could work."

Right then his clone dispelled.

"Oh well. One way to find out, really."

Author's note: Sorry for the delay.