The teams sat at camp in uncomfortable silence.
Everyone once again was tending to their injuries. Shino was probably the best off, his fight against his opponent going well and his victory coming at a low price.
The jonin sensei were sore, but they were fine. Mentally, they were more than a little shocked.
Tenten was shaken up, and Naruto was still bruised from his encounter with Neji, who was sitting very much alone with his back turned.
Judgement on him would have to wait until they returned to Konoha. Until then, with a badly injured Kiba in the team, he would still need to be part of the team.
Hinata was...quiet. She couldn't look at Neji or Naruto without flinching. The bruise on her face where Neji had struck her was large, and there was a cut next to it.
Naruto felt sore, but otherwise fine.
The dark mood surrounded the camp like a dark cloud, and Naruto busied himself checking his weapons and sharpening his tanto.
The slick sound of the whetstone on the steel was the only noise apart from the crackle of the fire and the sound of birds in the trees.
Kurenai was busy checking on Kiba's shoulder wound. The boy was sleeping, his breathing deep. Tenten's rudimentary jutsu had helped a little, but the arm was well out of commission. With the effects of the poison, he would be out of action for some time.
Naruto finished with his blade, and wandered over beside him.
"How is he?"
"Fine."
There was a lot of venom in that one word. His explanation had been backed up by Hinata and Tenten, and to an extent Kiba in his injured state, but Kurenai was still curt.
"I apologise for shooting him, but it was the..."
"Shut up."
He did. It was an order from a higher ranking shinobi so he obeyed instantly.
"Shut up and don't explain. You threatened one of my students, then you shot another. What next, are you going to cut of Shino's arm?"
"Only if it were necessary."
The slap stung the bruised part of his face. Everyone stared. Gai had made it over to them in the time it took the others to look.
"Why do you assault our youthful comrade?"
"Why? He's a danger. He's a problem. Every time he has showed up, bad things have happened."
"He helped our teams fight. He might have saved their lives against superior numbers."
"He shot Kiba."
"If he hadn't the man could have killed him."
"Could have. Hadn't. I would have preferred he got away, got to tell Suna what happened."
"He fought youthfully, even if he did shoot Kiba."
"He carries a Byakugan and ripped apart any chance of teamwork by default. Every injury on my genin other than Kiba's poisoning is his fault. He is the root cause."
"No. Neji assaulted a fellow shinobi; this was not Naruto's fault."
"I don't care."
Gai and Kurenai looked at each other as silence reigned.
There was a small sound, stifled almost as it started. Kurenai's face softened as she saw Hinata stand.
"Yes Hinata-chan?"
"N...Naruto-san is not to blame. I am."
"How?"
"I...I made him spare the Suna shinobi's life after I disabled him. That is why he was alive and able to capture Kiba. I s...sh...should also have seen the flanking team that Naruto-san attacked."
"Don't be so hard on yourself Hinata, you helped bring down enemies and fought well. Neji could have seen the team coming as well."
She shot a brief glance at the boy, who was looking exactly the other way.
"If you are that hard on Naruto-san, you have to be that hard on everyone else. O...otherwise it isn't fair."
Kurenai looked deeply at Hinata. The girl seemed to withdraw under the gaze, but was trying to hold out.
"She is right Kurenai-sensei, her conclusion is logical. Naruto-san was welcome help on our missions, and whilst his ocular prowess may be a source of conflict, he did not actively seek it."
Naruto realised he needed to breathe and did so. This situation was unexpected and fascinating. The genin were arguing against their superior's judgement in a way he had never even conceived of.
He found himself viewing a paradox. The sensei's judgement was challenged logically by her teams, and yet she was the sensei, and her orders went.
He kept watching. He had very little idea of what was going on.
"He shot Kiba. He shot your teammate. Does that not bother any of you?"
"N...Naruto is a good person inside. I know it."
"Whilst his actions were unconventional, Naruto saved Kiba's life without risking it unduly. Although there was possibly another solution to the problem, the situation demanded immediate action. Kiba was fully consenting to the action."
Kurenai looked at her two conscious genin with a look of deep, genuine surprise on her face. Seeing their lack of reaction to this, and realising that their reactions were genuine, she re-gathered herself. She turned to Naruto and threw her hands up in the air.
"Well, they accept your actions, and for that I am glad that they are trusting of you. I do not trust you. I do not like you. Never come near my team again whilst I am there. Do I make myself clear?"
"Hai."
There was a moment of silence before Gai leapt into the air with a whoop.
"Yosh! Youthful Naruto-kun has accepted his punishment again with grace, and his youthfulness burns brightly in the face of adversity. Lee will hear of this, and when he recovers, we will redouble our training!"
He stepped forwards and stuck out his thumb, white teeth gleaming brightly even in the firelight.
Tenten made a sound like she was going to throw up and Hinata and Kurenai giggled a bit.
"Oh come now Tenten, you know you enjoy our training!"
"A little I guess."
Kurenai smiled in her direction.
"Wait till you've known him as long as I have Tenten, the craziness grows on you little by little."
The girl looked horrified by the very thought. Neji snorted dismissively from the other side of the campsite.
Naruto did not know what to make of Neji. He could be an issue. He walked across the campsite and sat opposite him. Neji looked straight at him.
"What do you want?"
"You cannot tell anyone about my eye."
"Why not? I will make you relinquish what is our clans' property. It is destiny."
"Destiny? What is destiny?"
"It means you cannot change your fate."
"Fate?"
"You're an idiot. What happens to you in future is going to happen and cannot be changed. I will reclaim my eye, and that is the future."
"You cannot know the future."
"I can see the blindingly obvious. Like your stolen eye. Show it to me without your hood and covering. Show me all your face."
Naruto knew there was no point in doing so. But something made him want to. Some urge. Some urge to rise and attack in without any subtlety.
He flipped the hood down and moved aside the black band that covered his Byakugan. There were a couple of gasps from everyone on the far side of the camp, but no-one was going to intervene in this debate. This was personal.
"This is my eye."
"It will soon not be."
"You realise the consequences of you informing your clan I have this eye?"
"I will rise, and overthrow the weakness of the main branch! I will throw off the yoke of oppression that her father thrust upon mine!"
His finger lanced towards Hinata, who drew back from it almost on instinct even though he was some metres away.
"Tell me more about this yoke. Hinata-san does not seem to oppress you, in fact quite the opposite."
"You would not understand. My fate is to rise above the main house! I will bring glory to the branch house and reclaim what belongs to my family!"
"You will tear Konoha apart at the seams."
Neji stared at him. The words had been so calm Naruto might well have been asking for the time or mentioning the weather.
"Her father is the clan head. This is his jurisdiction. He will demand, quite rightly, to know how a shinobi of Konoha was running around with a Byakugan. He will wonder if there are any other such shinobi running around.
Now, with the old Hokage came the answers, the truth behind me. But with no Hokage? A new Hokage? How will they deal with the situation? They cannot. They have no answers, and Konoha will look inwards. It will tear inwards as one of the most powerful clans starts to question the leadership.
You know what happened to the Uchiha clan. The very same could happen to the Hyuuga. What then? What fate do you see?"
Neji stared at him before lunging forwards. Gai stopped him and had the boy in a loose but effective armbar in seconds.
"Neji, do not attack another shinobi of Konoha again."
"I demand a spar with him. See if he can match up to me without his eye."
Kurenai strode over to the conversation.
"You have no right to ask that Neji."
"I accept, but with a condition."
She stared at Naruto.
"That condition?"
"If I win, he is sworn to silence on the matter."
"I accept. It is my destiny to win!"
Gai released the hold, and Neji got up. He walked calmly over to Naruto, standing some inches taller than him.
"Tomorrow."
He spat on Naruto's chest, and then walked away.
The rest of the night was spent in tense silence. Kurenai had gone to do sentry duty, and Gai was watching over the sleeping genin.
Naruto kept staring into the fire.
"You're mad."
He looked to his left to see Tenten sit down. He'd heard her coming, but he was planning. He looked back into the fire, watching the flames dance.
"You're mad you know that? Neji is the best genin on Konoha at the moment. He'll be a chunin soon enough, and he will push for victory at all costs."
"I know."
"How can you fight him? Your tanto will help, but his fighting style gives him enough clout to stand up to weapon strikes. You won't have time to fire a shot, and you won't win with the blowgun."
"I know."
"Then how are you going to win?"
He looked at the fire again. A log in the centre was about to split, the wood weakening where the fire burned hottest. It began to bend before shattering, sending a pall of sparks into the sky.
He watched them float, imagining the science behind it, the logic and order. He realised there was a part of him that just wanted to watch them dance in the dark.
A kunai imbedded itself in front of him with a thunk as the metal knife stuck quivering in the dirt.
"Answer me."
The voice was closer, quiet, whispering and urgent. He looked again and saw her face again. There was a quaver in her eyes and lips that demand answers.
"You want me to beat your teammate? Tell me, seeing what you've seen of my fighting, do you think I can win without killing him?"
She bit her lip and withdrew.
"Or do you think he'll kill me?"
She looked at the ground.
"I think one of you might die. Maybe, Gai and Kurenai sensei will probably intervene in time to stop it, but even so. Someone is going to end up badly hurt. I don't really want it to be either of you. Given his luck it might be Kiba."
She let out a weak chuckle as he continued to look at the fire.
"How would you beat Neji?"
"I wouldn't. His Kaiten protects from range, he attacks from close range. Some kind of disabling earth jutsu might work. Maybe a high power jutsu. But you don't use them. You can't hide from his sight, and he's better close up."
"So you'd give up?"
"I'd try, but I'd need a new strategy."
"How do spars work? I've never had one this formal."
"How were you trained?"
"Extremely."
"That makes no sense."
"It does."
She shrugged. He was insane after all.
"Well you start off separated by a few metres, then fight till one of you wins I guess. Kurenai-sensei will probably lay down the rules before the fight."
Naruto smiled.
He knew how he was going to win.
Sorry for the shorter than normal chapter, but this is where it all divided nicely for me.
A quick thing to note is something from a few chapters back, I got Naruto's birthday wrong (whoops) so to clarify, his birthday is the Canon birthday and not the one I gave.