Written by Comfy Cushion and betaed by Juicy Phoenician and Dr. Fabulous.
Sasuke fell to one knee breathing as deeply as he could. The Final Exam would be in four days and he could waste no time in his training. Since the end of the Preliminary rounds he had been sparring against a Nine Tails boosted Naruto while learning more complicated Taijutsu from Kakashi. He would need this against his first opponent. This was until a week ago he and Naruto agreed the last stretch should be individual. For that week he had learned a few new techniques from Kakashi with the help of his Sharingan, as well as sparring against anyone who was willing to. By sheer coincidence he had run into a Chuunin on his way to his normal training spot. This Chuunin wore a beanie to cover his hair and had a burn mark on his right cheek. He also had a katana which he normally slung over his shoulder. Sasuke had asked if he had time for a spar and he accepted.
For the next hour Sasuke had been using everything he had to attack the Chuunin but was unable to get a proper hit. He grazed him a few times but that wouldn't be enough to hurt his opponent if they were really fighting. But if they were really fighting then his sparring partner wouldn't be holding back like he is now. Sasuke couldn't help but wonder why he was still so weak.
"Don't let it get to you kid." The Chuunin stayed just outside of Sasuke's range. "I'm a lot stronger than most Chuunin you will meet. In fact, most Jounin would struggle to beat me."
"Haa… haa… But I still can't land a hit." Sasuke had overexerted himself for a spar while his opponent was completely fine. "I need to get stronger."
"Hmmm…" The Chuunin seriously thought for a second. "You know you are at a Chuunin level already. There is no need to worry about getting promoted as long as you show your brains and not just your brawn."
"But that's not the point. If I can't even touch you, I won't be able to do what I need to." The Chuunin had no idea what Sasuke was talking about, but he could make his guesses.
"Let me tell you something. If my battle ability was measured by ranking I would be at a high A-Rank to low S-Rank, just like your Jounin. The only reason I am not a Jounin is my attitude and my poor leadership abilities. I honestly don't care about others which is probably my greatest weakness."
"Yet here you are helping me." Sasuke had finally caught his breath and stood back up. His endurance is reasonably good, but this guy had exhausted him. "Why would that be?"
"Heh. I need to apologise to that teammate of yours, but I will never say it to him. So I figured I could help you a bit and that would make me feel a little bit better." The Chuunin just shrugged once he said his slightly distorted thought process.
"Teammate? Do you mean Naruto?" When Sasuke saw a quick nod from the Chuunin he got slightly confused. "How do you know Naruto?"
"Well…" The Chuunin thought about what he could say since the Nine Tails was a secret. "I 'sparred' with him." Sasuke noted the intentionally drawn out word. "In fact he's the reason I didn't underestimate you when we started. That… Naruto almost got a hit on me." Sasuke managed to pick up the hidden meaning behind the Chuunin's words.
"You attacked him because of the Nine Tails?" The Chuunin's face to an 'Oh you know about that' look. "Why would you do that? He is a fellow ninja." Sasuke was getting angry.
"Listen kid. He may be a fellow ninja but the Nine Tails hurt a lot of people." The Chuunin touched the burn mark on his face. "Don't get angry at me kid. I'm not the only person who would have attacked him." This shocked Sasuke a bit. How hated was Naruto? It looked like most of the village hated Naruto for something that he couldn't control, yet Naruto managed to keep that smile of his for twelve years. It's no wonder he started to hate everything around him. To think that he believed his circumstances was shitty. At least he was liked; Naruto was outright hated by everybody who doesn't know him. "Okay. I'm going to go now, I think your Jounin will like to start training you. Isn't that right Kakashi Hatake?"
Sasuke looked up to see Kakashi suddenly appear in between the two of them. Sasuke wasn't really concerned about that though. Naruto probably has the worst life out of everyone else in the village and yet he had asked Sasuke to help another person in their troubles. Sasuke realised helping Neji was the least he could do.
XXX
As Sasuke stood across from Neji in the middle of the arena he realised he never asked that Chuunin for his name. He quickly brushed that thought to the side as Genma walked up closer to them.
"NOW! THE SECOND FIGHT! BEGIN!" Genma walked backwards giving the two of them what he thought would be a good enough distance. The entire crowd was watching this fight eagerly. These two were advertised as the strongest of their respective years, and this is where they would slash. The two of them stood across from each other not worrying about taking a stance. They knew a conversation would be held before they started.
It was Neji who broke the silence. "It looks as though there is something that you want to say."
"Not really." Sasuke just shrugged. Much to Naruto's annoyance and the fangirls delight, Sasuke was playing too cool.
Neji just smiled. "Only a genius with talent can be as confident as you are without it being misplaced. This battle will be very interesting; I wonder who's destiny has decided to win this battle."
"Destiny has nothing to do with it." Sasuke said as he took his stance. "You're just a lunatic who preached falseness in an attempt to convince others. Destiny can be changed."
"There is no need for me to convince anyone of anything. Destiny is inescapable." Neji also took his stance while he activated his Byakugan. "People must live with their own individual destiny. There is only one thing that everyone's destiny shares. Death." Neji's looked down for a brief moment with a look Sasuke knew all too well. It was anger hidden within sadness. It is the look Sasuke himself has when he looks at anything to do with his clan.
"I think we have spoken for long enough." Sasuke smiled as his Sharingan activated. Most people wouldn't have noticed, but there was a new tomoe in them.
XXX
"About time they started." Naruto said as he slumped on the railing. Shino was standing beside him. Chouji was looking after Shikamaru at the back of the room. "Sasuke should have no problem winning after training with me. Especially since Neji would have lost to me."
The man of few words Shino decided to speak. "That may not be the case. I don't think Neji revealed all of his techniques in his fight against you. He didn't have enough time to do any of that. He must still have a trump card."
Naruto shrugged. He wasn't exactly interested in how strong Neji really was. He knew Sasuke's true strength. During one of their spars, Sasuke's eye changed to create a third tomoe to make his eyes the same as Kakashi's. From then Sasuke could keep track of Naruto's movements even with two tails, although his body couldn't keep up. But he had a week and a half with Kakashi-sensei so he should be alright.
Naruto was snapped out of his thoughts by killing intent directed at him from the opposite side of the waiting area. "Keep it to yourself Gaara." Naruto said loud enough for everyone else in the room to hear. And with that the killing intent increased.
"Naruto Uzumaki." Gaara said in an attempt to hold himself back. He had to wait for the perfect time to kill Naruto. Temari and Kankuro could see Gaara struggling to keep himself controlled. They just hoped they weren't the ones who would feel his wrath when it was finally unleashed.
XXX
Neji had refused to attack and Sasuke was tired of waiting so he decided to be the one to attack. Charging forward he made sure Neji's stance didn't change. Realising that it hadn't Sasuke quickly calculated the reach of his hands with different movements. He saw the extent of possible attacks Neji could use to intercept and found the attack he should do to avoid all of those. He then thought of every possible counterattack and created ways to avoid them. All of this happened in the time it took him to reach Neji. This was only possible because of his upgraded Sharingan as well as watching two Gentle Fist users fight in the preliminaries.
However, Neji's eyes were also good enough to see every one of Sasuke's muscles and notice the smallest movements. Neji knew that Sasuke could do the exact same thing so he refused to be the first to attack. He didn't see the extent of Sasuke's ability during the Preliminaries due to the fact that his opponent was incredibly weak. If he made the first move then he would have been in a poor position.
Sasuke moved feint an attack to Neji's left, but then quickly moved to the right and tried to punch Neji in the chest. Neji could see this feint and was ready for the attack, so he tried to palm Sasuke's hand away, but hit nothing but air. Sasuke had stopped his attack jumped into the air in an attempt to drop an axe kick on Neji. However Neji crossed his two arms over his head and absorbed the attack. Sasuke quickly flipped away from Neji gaining enough distance to avoid any counterattack. Sasuke noted that Neji wasn't using his fingers to close opening points, but use his palm to hurt him internally.
"To charge in head on when you should be efficient in Ninjutsu, are you underestimating me?" Neji confidently asked as he patiently waited for Sasuke's next attack. He had managed to block all of Sasuke's attacks. He didn't close off any of his opening points but Sasuke wasn't at a level where he wasn't manageable. All that was left is to see his Ninjutsu.
Sasuke just shrugged as he charged forward again. This time he threw two shuriken to meet Neji head on. Neji merely palmed them both away with a quick burst of chakra. Sasuke jumped onto his hands and through a spinning kick at Neji. Neji jumped backward to avoid it, and then charged in. Sasuke bent him arms and used them to launch himself into the air. Sasuke was too high for Neji to attack without jumping, but Neji didn't bother looking up. With his Byakugan he could see the hand signs Sasuke was making.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Justu." With that a large ball of fire came out of Sasuke's mouth and went straight for Neji. Neji jumped towards the fireball and pushed forward with two large palms of chakra. This created a hole in the fireball letting Neji pass through it. Neji saw six shuriken spin towards him, but Neji was ready to avoid them all with a quick mid-air spin. Neji and Sasuke landed at the same time but they both charged at each other instantly. Sasuke made a few hand signs as they approached, but Neji wasn't bothered by it. Sasuke took a deep breath but held it in. His fire jutsu was already charged, but he wasn't ready to do anything with just yet. He pulled the wire string in his hands to lift the six shuriken and send them spinning in Neji's direction. Neji saw this but didn't bother to stop them since they would miss him anyway.
"Fire Release: Dragon Fire Jutsu." The wires that surrounded Neji instantly went up in flames. Neji ignored this and continued to charge. Sasuke jumped forward and let the string in his hands fall. Neji tried to palm Sasuke but his arm was caught. Sasuke spun around and threw Neji over his shoulder, but Neji used his other hand to stop his fall while sending a kick at Sasuke who jumped backwards to avoid it. The two of them were now completely surrounded by a ring of fire. It's not that they couldn't get out, but it forced them to stay in close combat.
"Heh. Is that all the great Uchiha clan has? I'm a little disappointed. It looks as though destiny has decided that you are not yet ready to win against me." Neji laughed as he stood back up.
"Let me ask you something Neji. Why do you hate Hinata so much?" Sasuke stood at the opposite half of the flaming circle.
"She is nothing but a spoilt child of the Main House who tried to fight against her destiny. There is no reason for me to see her as anything else." Neji coldly answered.
Sasuke kept his cool face as he heard the answer, he had expected such an answer. "Do you really think that trying to change destiny is such a bad thing? Before you called me a genius, and said that I had talent. What would you do if I told you that I am neither of those?" With this Neji raised an eyebrow. "Everyone thinks of me as a genius with talent, but all I was doing was trying to catch up to someone else's shadow. My older brother was the pride of my clan. He graduated at the age of 7 and became a Chuunin at 10. He was a genius with a large amount of talent. I was never enough to catch up to him. That was my goal. People may call me a genius, but that is because I worked hard enough before I joined the Academy to make it look that way. With my Sharingan I can learn everything else easier, but I still put in the effort to get stronger. I am no genius with talent like you are; I am a genius of hard work like Lee. I'm not saying I need to work as hard as him, but I still work harder than most."
XXX
Ino was a little confused at Sasuke's words. "Wait a second. Is the cool Sasuke actually a hard worker?" Ino tilted her head in confusion. Ino was the only person who got a higher overall score at the Academy than Sasuke purely because of his lack of cooperation skills. Sasuke was always acing everything that was thrown their way. It was no wonder why Ino became infatuated with him.
"I don't know." Sakura said. "We rarely train together." Sakura was a little confused. Sasuke was meant to be a genius at everything.
"It isn't really surprising." Lee said as if he knew all along. "There is no way that someone with such youthful power doesn't train hard. Try to think about when Sasuke was given something he didn't know how to do." At this Sakura thought back to the tree walking exercise. Sasuke and Naruto both tried just as hard to climb that tree. Although Naruto did continue overnight.
"Yeah. I guess." Sakura became a little dejected. She had spent all that time in a team with Sasuke but still knew so little about him.
XXX
"If you are a false genius of hard work then there is no way for you to beat me. People cannot change their destiny." Neji said as he retook his stance.
"Why do you always say that with such a sad face?" Sasuke also took a stance. "Let me show you the strength of hard work."
"I will show you how futile it is to avoid your destiny."
"Heh. If I win, that means you have been wrong this whole time. I hope you can admit it when that time comes."
Once again the two of them charged at each other. After a quick exchange they jumped away then charged again. This continued for a while. The two of them seemed to have the same level of Taijutsu. The crowd was sitting on the edge of their seat to see who would win. Finally Sasuke got the upper hand. Neji had mistimed a block and was forced to retreat to avoid being hit, but Sasuke did not let up. He continued his charge and continued to pound on Neji avoiding his palms at all costs. Sasuke continued to press his advantage until he was finally able to get a clean hit on Neji. Just before his punch hit, a burst of chakra appeared all over Neji's body. Sasuke did not want to see what this did and decided to retreat. Jumping back he made a few hand seals.
"Eight Trigrams Palms Kaiten (Revolving Heaven)." "Fire Release: Great Fireball Justu." Neji started to spin at an alarming rate which deflected the fireball. It even managed to put out some of the wires around them. Sasuke could see this through the fireball with his Sharingan. Neji stopped spinning and looked towards Sasuke with a grin.
"What the hell was that?"
XXX
"Isn't that..?" Hanabi saw Neji use a move that she saw used by the elders of their clan. She may be young but she knew how the clans worked.
"Yeah…" Hinata agreed with her little sister.
"What? What is that?" Kiba just looked between the sisters trying to understand what they were going on about.
"To think Neji-niisan learned how to do it without being taught." Hinata said as she watched her cousin stop spinning.
"Why wasn't he taught?" Kiba asked.
"Can you stop speaking dog? We're talking about the clan now." Hanabi said to Kiba.
"Be nice Hanabi-chan. It's not Kiba-kun's fault that he doesn't know." Hinata said to her sister before talking to Kiba. "That move is only taught among the Main House of our clan. Neji-niisan would have never been taught it but learned how to do it from watching someone else do it." Kiba nodded when he finally understood.
Hanabi just looked away from the two teammates and looked down to the battle. The only person she had to talk to like that was her sister, but even then they weren't close. She wished that her family was closer than they were, but she wouldn't say that out loud.
XXX
"Do you finally see the difference between our levels of ability?" Neji asked. Sasuke just shrugged as a response. He did his research on the Hyuuga clan. He was able to learn about a few clan jutsu, but the one Neji just used was one only for the Main House. If he knew this one then there was a chance he knew the other one. "It doesn't matter. It's over. You are within the field of my Eight Trigrams." As soon as he said this, Neji took a stance where he leaned forward and placed his left hand next to his left foot further out from his body. The most unusual part of this was that Sasuke had made the exact same movement at the exact same time.
""Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms"" Sasuke said at the exact same time as Neji. Neji had no idea what was happening. How was Sasuke making the exact same motions as he was? There was no way Sasuke could know Gentle Fist. It was then that Neji saw himself appear behind Sasuke as if it was his shadow. Neji quickly brushed it off as nothing important since he could see chakra in it. It was then that both Sasuke and Neji spun their right foot around.
""Gentle Fist. Two Palms."" Neji and Sasuke both sent out their fingers which met in the middle.
""Four Palms."" Once again they changed stance and attacked with two more attacks which met in the middle.
""Eight Palms."" The same thing happened.
""Sixteen Palms.""
""Thirty Two Palms.""
""Sixty Four Palms.""
Normally Sasuke should have been sent flying backwards, but since Sasuke had matched all of the moves nothing happened.
"Wha…?" Neji stood their confused until he saw what Sasuke was preparing. Another fireball came flying out of his mouth. Neji had just enough time to start to spin. Neji's head was still muddled. How did he do that? He shouldn't even know how to do that move, yet Sasuke who wasn't even a Hyuuga could do it as well. He didn't even realise that he started to slow down. As soon as the ultimate defence that was Kaiten slowed enough for Sasuke to jump in, he did so. Sasuke launched a punch with all of his strength at Neji's face. The hit collided and sent the Hyuuga flying through the air until he was stopped by the nearby tree. The shell shocked Neji just sat against the tree barely hanging onto his consciousness. He hadn't been hit that hard in a long time.
"I guess I should explain. I knew about those techniques of your clan since the information is in the Uchiha information books. I read up on all of your clan abilities and took precautions. I can't actually use Gentle Fist, but I learned roughly how to do this move." Sasuke was walking towards Neji. "You're arrogance lost you this battle. I am the same way, but I take all of my opponents seriously. You weren't expecting me to use Genjutsu at all so you didn't watch your own chakra flow. I caught you under a minor Genjutsu from our second conversation. I just didn't do anything with it until then. I suggested that you use Sixty Four Palms so I could do the same, this way rather than the full 64 opening points being closed, I only lose the two on my fingers." Sasuke was now upon Neji. Sasuke pulled out a kunai and got ready to attack Neji with it.
"WINNER! SASUKE UCHIHA!" The entire crowd roared with excitement. The Uchiha beat the Hyuuga. With that Sasuke placed his kunai back in his pouch.
Sasuke bent in closer to Neji. "I don't know why you hate your clan, but in all honestly I couldn't care less. That brother I mentioned earlier, he killed my entire clan except me. I no longer have any family. You on the other hand have Hinata. Even though you beat her half to death she still cared for you. I don't think she really cared about the Main and Branch house issues. Don't go spreading your hatred as a genius." Sasuke stood back up. "Hinata isn't as weak as you think. She had a different kind of strength. She would have gotten up from that attack." With those words Sasuke walked off and up the stairs to the waiting room.
XXX
"How much did you teach him Kakashi?" Serious Gai was talking as they saw Sasuke disappear into the waiting room. "You didn't teach him that move did you?"
"I don't think you have a right to say that Gai." Kakashi said as he looked down at Lee. Lee was shaking due to a feeling he couldn't explain. He had just watched his 'eternal rival' lose to someone else. "Besides, he has two eyes and the body to go with it, he's the only person who could learn that technique."
"You have to be careful with your team Kakashi. For both of them to become so strong already." Both Naruto and Sasuke had won their battles with ease. Naruto held back to the bare minimum of his strength while Sasuke barely broke a sweat. Those two had easily become the strongest Genin in Konoha. Although that was because of Lee's injuries and Neji's arrogance. The four of them together would be an unbeatable team.
"Shouldn't you be celebrating their youthfulness or something? Besides, at least I have one that progresses normally." Kakashi said as he looked towards the Genin in the stands. Sakura and Ino started arguing again while Lee just sat there thinking. It was then he felt something and quickly looked behind him. There stood an ANBU with a cloak. Gai grabbed Kakashi's shoulder.
"They're here just in case. You know how protective of citizens the Hokage is." Kakashi nodded as he turned back to the empty battlefield.
XXX
"Show off." Naruto said as Sasuke finally made it to the top of the stairs.
"Heh." Sasuke joined Naruto and Shino at the railing. "I did what you asked. Neji should rethink his opinions now." Shino raised an eyebrow at their conversation but felt no need to get involved.
"Yeah but you didn't even break a sweat doing it." Naruto grumbled. His victory came with after two explosions.
"Well done Sasuke." Shikamaru was now feeling much better. His injuries had stopped bleeding and his chakra was replenishing thanks to food pills Chouji had with him. Chouji offered them to Naruto and Sasuke but both of them were fine without it so they refused his offer. "So far everything has turned out alright."
"You tried to blow me up Shikamaru. How is that alright?" Naruto grumbled again. He didn't like it when Sasuke showed off like that.
Shikamaru just shrugged. "Troublesome. You're fine now so who cares? The only thing that was hurt was your jacket. I'm more hurt than you are."
"THE NEXT MATCH IS CHOUJI AKIMICHI VS GAARA!" Genma called out the next match.
Shikamaru and Chouji's eyes met. "You know what to do." Shikamaru said. Chouji gulped in an attempt to quell his nerves.
XXX
"Okay Chouji." Shikamaru sat Chouji down in one of their usual spots. Shikamaru liked to lie down and look at the clouds, and more often than not Chouji would join him. It was an hour before they were required to meet up for the Final Exam. "Do you have any plan to defeat Gaara?"
"Um…" Chouji had been training with his father for the past month. After Chouji told him about Gaara's battle in the preliminaries, Chouza (Chouji's father) made sure that Chouji was always training with him, Asuma, or another member of the Akimichi clan. He refused to send his son to such a dangerous battle unless he was prepared to the fullest. But even so Chouji had his doubts. Chouji reached into his pouch and pulled out a plastic container with three separate food pills in them. One pill was green, another was yellow, and the last was red.
"Are those…?" Shikamaru looked back in surprise. He knew exactly what they were.
"Three Coloured Pills." Chouji finished for him. "Shikamaru, if…"
"Chouji." Shikamaru interrupted Chouji. "Do you really think that I would let you use those? That red pill can kill you Chouji. There is no point of risking your life for this, even if you say you won't go that far… I don't want to see that happen Chouji. I think everyone else would agree. No one is expecting you to fight against Gaara. Heck I don't think Gaara is expecting you to fight. It is your choice what you do Chouji, but it doesn't matter whether you fight or not."
XXX
"I SURRENDER!" Chouji yelled at the top of his lungs.
Genma gave a look as if he was over all of this. Back in his day they fought no matter what, none of this surrendering before they started crap. "CHOUJI FORFEITS! NEXT MATCH IS NARUTO UZUMAKI VS TEMARI!"
Chouji looked down dejected. He could have gone down and fought but there would be no point in getting injured for no reason. It was then a hand reached out to his shoulder. He expected it to be Shikamaru's but it wasn't.
"Don't worry about it. Not many people would be able to fight against Gaara after seeing what he did to Lee. No one else would be smart enough to quit. Naruto will beat him up nice and good for you." Sasuke understood that there was no way of forcing Chouji to fight against someone who he wasn't ready to. Shino nodded in agreement. Chouji couldn't help but smile at that. A quick glance at the Sand ninja would show that Gaara really didn't care. He had seen Sasuke battle and was rather excited to kill him later so he didn't mind waiting. Not only that but before he could, he would have to fight against Naruto.
"Temari. Forfeit." Gaara ordered her older sister. He didn't want Naruto to lose to anyone but himself.
"But Gaara. Don't forget the mission." Temari pleaded. Gaara glared at her with his killer eyes making her back off slightly.
"Don't say that Gaara." Naruto had walked up behind the Sand siblings. "The crowd won't be very happy with the third surrender. Besides, do you really think I could lose to your sister? I told you before that I would be the one to kill you, not the other way around, so relax, and take it easy. I'll defeat your sister then defeat you." Gaara's eyes widened in excitement. He REALLY wanted to kill the blond. "C'mon Temari. Let's go, the crowd is waiting."
The two of them walked side by side towards the stairs. About halfway down Temari broke the silence. "I will not let you kill him."
"Oooh…" Naruto couldn't help but get interested. "Doesn't he threaten to kill you almost all the time?"
"What's your point?" Temari kept her straight face as she continued. "If you DARE try and hurt my brother I will kill you right now."
"It must be nice…" Naruto smiled sadly. "To have someone who cares about you. I will not let your brother run around rampant. I will kill him if that means keeping others safe. You probably know about him being a homicidal maniac the best. I will stop it, one way or another."
XXX
Naruto and Sasuke had finished training for the day. The two of them sat exhausted at the base of a cliff that Kakashi made them climb to wind down, without chakra by the way. They both were panting hard. Naruto was using his clone training technique so every now and then a flow of memories would flood into his head. This didn't stop him from training, but gave him a slight time lag depending on how long the burst clone had been made for. Sasuke had recently gained his third Tomoe making him grow in strength just as much as, if not more than Naruto was even with the clones. The Sharingan is an amazing thing.
"Haa… haa… I beat you to the top again dope." Sasuke smiled at the slightly annoyed Naruto.
"That's because… haa… the first clone I made… haa… burst. He had… haa… just as many… haa… memories as I had, haa… that wasn't fair. I'm lucky I didn't pass out."Naruto complained.
"I don't need your excuse." Sasuke took a deep breath as he stood up. "I'm choosing where we eat. We'll grab some take out then go back to mine."
"What about Sakura-chan? Do you want to invite her this time?"
With that Sasuke shivered. "You saw what happened when I let her into my house." To make Sasuke shiver like that isn't an easy task. "She literally would not shut up, and that was the least of it."
"You don't need to tell me that. You should have seen her when you weren't in the room. She literally rubbed her face on everything that you owned." With that both Naruto and Sasuke shivered. "It wasn't a pretty sight."
"I think I need a shower." And with that the two boys laughed. It was clear that Sasuke had lightened up a great deal from his Academy days, unfortunately Naruto had done the exact opposite. The number of people who he could be around with his cheerful nature had decreased astronomically. He even struggled to stay happy around Sakura. Sasuke realised this and was trying to make Naruto go back to his cheerful Academy self, but there was only so much he could do. Sasuke didn't even realise it until recently, but Naruto had become his first and best friend.
A cold chill suddenly swept over both of them. Simultaneously they jumped away from the source and looked to see what it was coming from. It was Gaara holding the cork to his gourd. Sand started to flow out.
'Hey Kurama. Tell any clone left to burst and prepare to fight. I will need your help for this.'
"What do you want?" Sasuke asked which caused Gaara's sand to stop.
"Mother hungers. I am here to kill you both."Gaara tensed his hand into a claw, he was out for blood.
'Mother? We may not need to fight.'
"Why would you want to kill us? We haven't done anything to you." Sasuke said to the blood hungry Sand ninja.
"I want to because I can, is that so hard to understand?" Gaara said with a creepy smile.
"To measure my capacity."
"WHAT KIND OF SHITTY EXCUSE IS THAT!?" Sasuke said as he started to make hand signs.
'Stop him.' Naruto reached over and grabbed Sasuke's hands before he could finish. Sasuke gave Naruto a confused look. 'It's been a while Shukaku.'It was Naruto's turn to be confused.
'God dammit! Of all the shitty siblings it had to be you! What does the mighty Nine Tails want with me?!' A mocking tone appeared inside Naruto's head, Gaara was equally as confused when he heard Kurama's voice just before.
"Mother?" Naruto could hear Gaara panic. "Don't worry I will kill them soon. Just wait." Gaara had responded to the voice as mother.
"Can the Tailed Beasts communicate telepathically?"Naruto asked out loud. Sasuke got a little bit confused but
'Bingo! It looks like your host is smarter than you are Kurama! Now can you take your host and go fuck yourself?!'
'Don't be like that Shukaku. You know just how much stronger I am than you. I have eight more tails. I am the strongest, and you are the weakest.'
'YOU KNOW THAT IS BULLSHIT! See this is why we never got along! You fucking bitch!'
'Dear god, you're annoying.'
"WHAT IS HAPPENING!?" Sasuke jolted at Naruto's outburst. "Listen both of you. Right now Gaara wants to kill me and Sasuke, yet here you are arguing about the number of tails you both have. Can we solve the Gaara problem before moving onto the next?"
'Shut up brat! You can choose to die now or die later! It doesn't matter to me!'
"Then make it later. Just go away for now." Naruto said as Gaara's killing intent disappeared.
"Mother? Are you satisfied with nothing?" Gaara stood very confused.
'Patience Gaara! Wait until later! The time will come!'
"Thank you Shukaku."
'Thank me!? Kahahaha! A human thanking me! How funny!'
'I got the exact same feeling when I first spoke with this brat. I would like to speak with you privately Shukakua, but I think we can save that for when our hosts fight in the exam.'
'Kahahaha! It won't be that easy Kurama! My own host has his reason to kill! Tell them Gaara!'
"Yes mother." Naruto noted that Shukaku appeared to be Gaara's 'mother' for some reason that he was about to find out. "I was born into this world taking the life of the woman I would have called my mother. To become the ultimate ninja with my father attaching the incarnation of sand, Shukaku upon me through Ninjutsu. I was born a monster. My father taught me the Ninja secrets, I was spoiled and allowed to do as I please. That was until my father had tried countless of times to assassinate me." With that a creepy smile appeared on Gaara's face. "For the last six years I was a being too strong that became feared. My father, the Kazekage determined that I was too dangerous. As the village's dangerous tool I was only being used with care. To them I am simply an object of the past that they wish would disappear. Then why do I exist? Why am I alive? When I thought about this I could find no answer. But as you live you need a reason, otherwise it's the same as being dead. I then came to this conclusion, 'I exist to kill every human being besides myself.'"
"That's pathetic if that is the only thing you could think of." Sasuke said interrupting Gaara's rant.
"You say that but haven't you always had a reason?" Gaara said. "I will kill both of you during the Chuunin exams to prove that I exist. You will validate my existence." Gaara said with a smile.
"No Gaara. I will be the one to kill you. Naruto calmly said. Without missing a beat Gaara's two siblings jumped down next to Gaara.
"Gaara. Let's go back. You shouldn't be here." Temari said as she stood in between Naruto and Gaara. Without saying a word, Gaara packed up all of his sand and turned away. He left with Kankuro and Temari in tow.
"I think I am going to give tonight a miss." Naruto said as he started to walk away.
"Wait Naruto. You don't also think like that do you?" Sasuke said to Naruto's back. "You've always had a reason to live, right? Naruto. ANSWER ME." Naruto quickly used Shunshin to get away.
XXX
"I am just like him Temari." Naruto had stopped walking and Temari followed suit. "We both have Tailed Beasts within us and have no reason to live. But to reach such a sad conclusion, I will have no choice but to kill him. If for nothing else but to prove to myself that I am not wrong. If you want to stop me, now is your only chance. During this match, make me lose, only then will your brother be safe." Naruto started to walk forward again. Both of them were headed to the battlefield for their next battle.
XXX
Neji lay in the recovery room. He had finally gotten over the sudden hit to his head. It may not have looked like much, but for someone who rarely gets hit and forgot to absorb the blow, it was a rather heavy hit. Neji felt very dejected at his loss, especially after all of his arrogant words to everyone who he fought in the past. He even was arrogant towards Tenten and Lee. While he was moping around in his thoughts, the medical ninja around him realised that there was nothing else wrong with him so they left him alone. A knock at the door woke him out of his little trance.
"Um…" A shy voice sounded through the crack of the door. Neji didn't need to activate his Byakugan to know who it was. And true to his thoughts, Hinata poked her head in to see if he was awake. "Neji-niisan? Are you okay?"
Neji sat up to greet his (unwanted) guests. "Yes Hinata-sama. I am just fine. Thank you for your concern." Hinata walked into the room with Hanabi and Kiba following.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Hanabi asked. "You did just lose to the Uchiha."
"Yes Hanabi-sama. I am sure."
"She wasn't talking about your body. The Genin who cannot lose just lost easily. You've got to have some serious brain issues. Then again you've always had those."Kiba said as he walked to the furthest position in the room from Neji. He knew that Hinata and Neji were family, but he wasn't happy that Hinata wanted to visit Neji.
"You might be right." Neji said as he looked down. With that Kiba raised an eyebrow. "It seems that there has been a flaw in my logic. Thanks to Sasuke it has been pointed out to me, although it was in a rather violent manner."
"He took the same approach you did to Hinata. Trying to force her to believe in your stupid destiny bullshit."
"Kiba-kun…" Hinata said in alarm. She was here to make peace, not start a war.
"It's fine Hinata-sama. He is right." Neji lay back down on the bed. "I am sorry for my rudeness, but I'm still not exactly sure how I am wrong, it is just clear that I am. Destiny and talent are things that exist, but hard work is also a factor I must take into account. I ask that you leave me alone for a time so I can figure it out for myself."
"Tch… People have been telling you that from the beginning." Kiba said as he started to walk out. He wasn't there for long but he wasn't going to complain. "Let's go Hinata, Hanabi-chan." As soon as he said this, a man walked in through the door.
"Tou-san?" Hinata said in surprise as Hisashi Hyuuga walked into the room.
"Leave us." He demanded while looking at Neji. Kiba, Hinata and Hanabi left to go watch Naruto's next match.
A/N
Chapter finished.
I do feel that need to mention that the character with a scar on his face and wields a sword is an OC. I forgot at the time but there already was a sword wielding person with a scar. Raido Namiashi was one of the Fourth Hokage's bodyguards and is not the person that I've mentioned. I just thought I should clear that up if anyone noticed.
Leave a review to tell me what you think.
Now that's all of the fic stuff, so it's time to tangent again. I got a job :D. It was sudden as well but I'm not complaining. I don't know if there is some god of fanfic that if an author complains about not having something to their readers they will get it. I WANT THREE DUFFLEBAGS STUFFED WITH MONEY! *crosses fingers*. Nope that didn't work. Oh well. Now I will have less time to write which will make me want to do more, Am I weird like that?
Anyways. I could keep writing but I think most of you would have stopped reading it by this point.
Signing out Comfy Cushion