Alright! Fourth chapter!

I now realize that a chapter a day is a little harsh so I declare Sunday as my free day unless I feel like writing.

Unfortunately I do not own Naruto or Gundam

This chapter is short, sorry.


"WHAM!" Naruto punched the locker in frustration. His hand had started to bleed as he had been at this for a few minutes. "Damn it! How the fuck could I lose?!" He fell down to his knees as he felt the stress from the fight finally catching up to him. He gritted his teeth as he recounted what happened.


Flashback

It was Naruto who first broke the stalemate. One of the smaller asteroids hit Naruto's leg and he lost balance. As Naruto tumbled around in space, Neji saw his opportunity and went for it. Firing with near precision accuracy Neji might have hit Naruto, but for the asteroid which took all the hits. Naruto tried his best to try and balance himself out. He finally pushed up on the throttle and the jets took effect and he stopped moving.

As he breathed a sigh of relief he looked up to see Neji right in front of him. Naruto stopped, this was it, Neji had him. It all seemed to move in slow motion as Naruto thought about how he would never be able to pilot the Idealist when…

"CLICK." Neji looked at his ammo supply. The bar was already down at the bottom and was red.

As Neji relaxed and prepared for the inevitable, Naruto raised his rifle. He checked his ammo supply just to make sure and slowly pulled the trigger. "CLICK." He pulled it again. "CLICK." "CLICK." "CLICK." "CLICK." "CLICK."

End Flashback


Right at the moment when he was supposed to claim victory and regain his honor, his fucking gun jammed. After he figured it out he flew all the way back to the Normandy to leave himself in the state he is in now.

He sunk even further down as he fully realized the severity of his situation. And it could be summed up in three words: He lost Idealist. He would never get the chance to pilot the machine anymore. Early on he had realized that he was meant to pilot the Gundam. He had developed what could be considered in a pure humanoid situation as something of a bond with it.

"Damn it!" He screamed as he took his anger out on the hunk of metal in front of him yet again. He hit less forcefully this time because he was loosing his strength quickly. It was then that he noticed the strong presence in the room. He quickly whipped around as he drew his handgun. He lined up the barrel and was about to take a shot when he realized who the person was.

"Neji?" Neji had his back pressed up against the glass that overlooked the vastness of space. He stood there for a few minutes before lazily responding. "Put your gun down. Do you really think there would be an enemy on this ship?"

Naruto reluctantly lowered his weapon towards the person that he did consider his enemy. "What do you want Neji? Come to gloat over the loser?"

Neji smiled a bit. Not a smirk, but a genuine smile, and it was directed toward Naruto. Naruto looked confused for a moment until Neji spoke up. "You won dobe." Naruto looked dumbfounded for a minute before Neji explained. "If you recall, I was the first one to run out of ammo. If this was a real fight, I would be finished." Naruto still looked confused. "But the gun jammed. There is no difference between what happened there and what would happen in a real fight."

Neji pushed himself up from the window and started to walk over to where Naruto kneeled. "That's exactly what I thought at first too." Neji stated as he stopped a few feet from Naruto. "But when we looked inside the machinegun, we found one of the paintballs had exploded and froze up inside the chamber. That would not happen in a real fight."

Naruto still just kneeled there until it finally clicked. "YATTAH! I WON! I WON! I WON! I WON!" Naruto was jumping up and down like he was a kid on his birthday.

Neji just smiled and turned around to go when Naruto suddenly stopped his jubilation. He instantly adopted an emotionless face. "Thank you Neji." Neji turned his head to the blond a said in a calm voice, "I just prefer to beat you on even terms." At this Naruto exploded. "Why you little bastard! Am I just a stepping stone for you?! A peon just used to prove your worthiness?!"

Neji just kept on walking down the hallway. He finally replied in an emotionless tone, "No you are a true rival worthy of fighting me. I look forward to dueling you again, Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto Just smiled and stated in a calm voice, "Same here."

And as Naruto just stood there watching the dark haired boy, he could swear he saw another genuine smile.