Naruto can't describe what he's feeling as he, and the rest of the Grass troop, enters the area that Sound conquered in the last battle. The once beautiful landscape is destroyed by the large amount of people walking through it and the Grass shinobi are troubled by the view of the demolition. Naruto doesn't notice this since his mind isn't with them. The blonde Konoha ninja walks like a zombie while his beautiful blue eyes are distant.

His mind is in a blur, his thoughts wander to different things in a quick speed that leaves Naruto confused and restless. But there's one person that is on his mind more than others and that's Uchiha Sasuke. The enigma's dark stare, sometimes with the Sharingan activated, looks at him every time Naruto closes his eyes.

"Sasuke why don't we end this now? Follow us to Konoha and we´ll be able to solve anything…everyone wants you to come back."

Naruto recalls how he pleaded with Sasuke last time they saw each other but what he remembers even more is the way the man declined his request without second thoughts.

"Haha." Naruto can still remember the heartless laughter, it still echoes in his head. "We talked about this last time Naruto. I won't return and things won't return to what it used to be. That Uchiha Sasuke you knew doesn't exist anymore."

Naruto knows that Sasuke has changed since he last saw him but the fact that he told him that without a trace of regret makes him depressed. His blonde hair floats around his head as he shakes it. Blue eyes get focused again.

"Then I´ll take you home, even if you object." The blonde can also remember the bitterness in his own voice. "Tsunade wants to give you the village's punishment."

Naruto frowns. It's true that he has to take Sasuke to Konoha no matter what he or Sasuke thinks. The question is if he can do it. Fight Sasuke, capture him and take him to a village where a severe punishment is waiting for the Uchiha. A pain near his hart makes his chest hurt like it has done several times ago.

Shikamaru makes a move of his hand and the Konoha squad jumps into the air and starts to use the trees to move forward. The wind feels nice against his face as he jumps from branch to branch but using these bamboo-like trees are a lot harder to walk on than he thought. He regards how the less skilled Grass shinobi runs below him and he wonders how many of them will be able to survive the war.

"We're closing in on them, prepare yourselves!" Shikamaru alerts everyone.

Everything turns eerily silent all of a sudden and the earlier heavy footsteps are no longer that loud. Naruto pulls forth a kunai and prepares himself for battle. His pulse is starting to accelerate as he feels how a foreign chakra gets closer and closer. An image from the corner of his eyes makes him aware of that he's not the only one who's fighting his emotions.

The stoic Neji looks very intimidating as he jumps from branch to branch with his Byakugan activated. Those large veins make his eyes look terrifying but also desperate. Naruto tries to ignore the feeling that grows inside of him; he doesn't want it to happen. The blonde man believes that he and Neji will get in each other's ways since they both wants to reach Sasuke but in different ways. Totally different ways.

A loud sound echoes and it's now clear that the Sound army knows that they're coming. The battle is about to begin.

Have you read the news today?

So much hate going round

Ain't no love to be found

Is everybody out of faith?

Spending most of their lives

Trying to waste it

Akai sighs. Her whole body is aching due to severe training the day before and moving around has become a burden. Purple bruises can be easily seen on the skin that's bare but the girl pays no attention to it since she's busy enough with stretching her muscles. Her smaller brother, Gosai, continues to practise his chakra control seriously by her side and Akai smiles at his passion.

"Onee-chan, teach me how to do that trick!"

Akai, who adores her little brother, does everything she can to help him to improve but she finds it difficult since she can't really see what happening. The fact that the young boy asks for her help makes her chest grow warm and she can't object.

"I showed you a moment ago, Gosai-chan…" Akai complains with a smile.

"But it's tricky…"

"Isn't a trick supposed to be tricky?"

Even though Akai can't see she knows that Gosai is pouting. The Grass kunoichi gets up on her feet and pats him on his head.

"I´ll do it, watch and copy alright?"

"Hai!"

Akai takes some steps away from her brother before she stomps loudly to locate a good target. The vibrations in the ground tell her that there are two trees in front of her and Akai chooses one of them. She performs the correct hand signs and summons a big shuriken made of grass, that can be extremely sharp if you want it to, and throws it in the direction of the tree. The large shuriken hits it and the tool dissolves into small grass strands until it disappears completely.

"Now, try."

"Hai!"

The small, soon to be Genin, takes some steps forward and prepares himself with a serious expression on his face. Akai regards him in silence and she flinches when her ears pick up that he actually copied her stomping before performing the jutsu too. A smirk grows bigger on her pale lips. Gosai makes the handsigns rather quickly but due to the speed of it they're not as good as they could be. Akai´s smirk fades as the jutsu turns incomplete and useless. She can feel how her little brother gets sad due to the change in the air but she ignores it and puts her hand on his shoulder.

"You don't have to stomp…You can see, right?"

The small boy smiles weakly up at his sister.

"Hehe, I like it when you stomp."

"Strange child." Akai mutters with a small blush on her cheeks. He's so adorable!

The two of them starts over and Akai is about to show him the jutsu step by step when a loud sound interrupts the peace around them. It's the sound of a battle horn of some sort and it´s never a good sign. Akai tenses immediately and her quick reaction scares Gosai a little, he clings to her arm.

"What's that sound?" He asks her.

Akai uses all her senses to grasp the situation and she receives a picture in her head rather quickly. All the people around them have also stopped in their duties to listen to the terrifying sound from the distance and none of them is happy about it. One of the few Jounin that has stayed in the village starts to act and tells the villagers to head back to safety and wait for further information. That's when Akai understands that things might get ugly soon.

"They're already fighting…" She murmurs to herself but Gosai hears it well due to their closeness.

"I'm scared."

Blue, misty eyes look down at her brother who's clinging to her. Even though the child fights his fears Akai can feel how he shakes in her embrace. Akai frowns as she starts to enter her kunoichi mode.

"C´mon, I´ll take you to the academy alright? They know what to do."

"Yeah…"

Akai is quick to grab Gosai´s hand and throws him up on her back. She makes sure that he's sbalanced there before she starts to run towards the academy as fast as she can. Her quick steps create a map inside of her mind and it makes it easy for her to find her way. Gosai clings to Akai in a way that makes it hard to breathe but she ignores it as she continues to run. The need to protect Gosai makes her able to accelerate even more since Akai believes protecting her family, and village, in this way is her only choice now. I´ll protect them as much as I can!

The villagers around her are also starting to get consumed by panic for their lives and the Chuunin fears that the situation will turn chaotic. The village is so small and is already ruined do to the latest attack so the fear of getting attacked once again will turn this place into something she won't recognise. But that doesn't change the fact that she'll protect it until she dies. A young woman meets her gaze as she approaches the academy and it takes a while for Akai to understand that she´s one of Gosai´s teachers.

"Isozaki-san!"

"Sensei, please take care of Gosai-chan."

Akai puts down Gosai and gives him a quick but tight hug before she turns away to run towards her home. She needs to inform her mother about it because a lot of injured people might get into the hospital soon.

"Hai, be careful!" The teacher yells at my back.

"Onee-chan!"

"Be a nice kid okay? I´m gonna go and fetch mother. I´ll come by later!" Akai shouts over her shoulder.

She can feel how her breath is starting to get deeper and she wants to curse out loud at her bad condition but doesn't, she continues to run in silence. Her heart is beating quickly in her chest and it's both due to her health and fear. A throbbing pain is starting to invade her stomach and Akai knows that her wound isn't that well yet. She lowers her speed a little and is careful not to over do it as she jogs towards her home.

"Mom!"

Akai calls for her mother as she enters the house and it doesn't take long for her to see where the woman is. Akane is running back and forth from the kitchen to the living room while packing her medical tools.

"I'm on my way, Akai go and help the villagers to safety!"

"Yes."

Akai turns and is about lo leave as quickly as she arrived but her mother stops her.

"Eh…wait."

"What?"

"Be careful."

Akai´s eyes widen a fraction as she feels how Akane hands her a small, cold bottle of pills. The form and weight of the bottle is enough to tell her that it's indeed her painkillers. A small smile graces the corners of her lips as she faces her mother.

"Thanks, I will."

"Everyone, get yourselves to safety!" Akai yells as loud as she can.

Every one seems to be devoured by fear and panic and Akai knows that those emotions will cause chaos if this continues. She tries to look calm and collected even though her heart is beating quicker than the speed of a train since the albino girl knows that seeing her calm face might help others. Or they'll just freak out because she's paler than usual.

"Akai-senpai, what should we do!?" A genin asks Akai in a desperate voice.

The albino recognises the young man quickly and gets surprised since he is one of the ones who use to ignore her presence. So he do know that I exist. She thinks to herself as she turns to face him properly. The man is frightened, she can tell due to his breathing and shaky voice, and she puts her hand on his shoulder. She wonders why he approached her out of fear when he didn´t dare to do just that in normal circumstances.

"Calm down." She tells him calmly. "We need to stay calm so the villagers can feel safe. Go to the south and make sure everyone is taking cover. It won´t take long before the battle will reach Grass."

"Yes!" He nods and rushes away.

Akai listens to his steps as he runs away from her. The fact that she's the only Chuunin at the location make her rise in rank and a lot of lower status ninja suddenly listens to what she has to say. It's a strange situation that she both likes and dislikes with all her heart. They should have listened before too and not only now due to the war. Akai embraces her new position and starts to work together with some of the villagers who're trying to seek cover. She works in silence until one of the few Jounin that stayed approaches her. He regards her work for a moment.

"Good job, Isozaki!"

Akai turns to the man but she can't pinpoint who he is since his voice is affected by his injuries and bad condition. The man has been running, a lot and that shows.

"Senpai." She greets him with a small bow of her head.

"All the villagers in this area are safe for now, thanks for your help."

When his voice gets clearer she recognises him as one of Aoi´s friends from the time when he was in the academy. The man she's talking to is probably one of the people who graduated the same year as her brother.

"No problem." Is her answer.

"We should move to the gate and prepare for the attack. We need as much people as possible defending the gates."

"Hai. Let´s go."

Akai and the rest of the Grass village´s shinobi prepares themselves for battle near the outskirts of their home. All they can do now is wait. Her pale fingers fumble with the lid of the bottle of pills before she's able to open it. She takes a white and yellow one and puts it into her mouth and swallows quietly. Her misty eyes turn to look at the forest. She want to be there on the field with them so badly and it hurts to swallow her pride and not run to them. I've to get stronger. She thinks as she looks into the darkness of the bamboo forest. And I´ll only get stronger by obeying orders and protect the village this way!

Akai notices how her senpai, that's called Hanasaku Yusuke, regards her in silence and his stare makes her hide the bottle of pills in her long sleeve. Yosuke doesn't speak but Akai can feel how his thoughts start to surround her like a cloud of worry. A deep sigh leaves her lips.

"Hanasaku-senpai, I´ll manage."

"Eh… un." He agrees after a while.

I hope I won't get myself killed.

There might be trouble on the way, ey

But I'll be damned if I surrender

"Damn, they've noticed us!" Kiba growls after some time of sniffing around. "They'll attack!"

The Inuzuka man looks at the others over his shoulder as he rides Akamaru in the front of the marching army. He is excited but also cautious and decides not to rush into battle as he uses to do. This is an important battle and he can't afford to do any mistakes. His gaze meets Shikamaru´s for a moment and he can literally smell the lazy man's uneasiness.

"It's time to charge!" A Grass ninja yells.

Kiba flinches "H-hey!"

Akamaru jumps out of the way as several shinobi rushes by and the sudden movement makes Kiba lose his balance somewhat. He and Naruto are often the hot-headed and impulsive ones on the team so it's a surprise for him to see how so many rushes to battle without a second thought. Maybe I would be like that too if we were fighting for Konoha and not Grass…He ponders to himself before he follows the flow.

"It's time to do some damage!" Lee sounds thrilled but serious at the same time. "Yosh!"

Kiba looks at the older man and decides it's time for him to get some action too. He can't lose to Lee right? Akamaru barks as if the dog read his master's mind and the two of them runs after the army of Grass ninja. Shikamaru sighs deeply since he thought that Kiba actually would act a little more responsible during this mission.

Shikamaru is about to say something when his cheek suddenly starts to hurt. His dark eyes narrow as he realises that he has been cut by something sharp and fast, a shuriken. Shikamaru jumps to his side to avoid another one and he is quick to calculate where they came from. Above. Shikamaru acts quickly and grabs one of the shuriken aimed at him and throws it back in the same direction as it came. A loud groan can be heard before a red liquid falls from the tree; Shikamaru hit his target.

Neji and Naruto rush by Shikamaru since they believe he can handle the situation by himself. Both of them have a different goal in mind and that is to find Uchiha Sasuke and to beat him. The Uchiha is one of the strongest foes in this battle so when they take him down the victory might be close by. One of the most important rules in a war is to beat the leader since when the leader is down his underlings will crumble but no one is looking forward to battle Orochimaru. But will the snake continue the war if he loses his most important chess pieces?

Shikamaru sighs once more as he stares at Naruto and Neji´s backs since he is well aware of what is going on. The ponytailed man jumps to his side when two Sound ninja shows themselves and Shikamaru gets ready to fight. He binds them with his shadow techniques and cuts them until they can't hurt him anymore. He's shutting of his emotions to be able to kill the way his enemies want to kill him. Blood colour his hands but Shikamaru doesn't notice as she continues to fight. The fight has began.

Lee and Kiba races through the narrow bamboo forest in high speed while attacking everyone that comes to stand in their way. The two of them competes in a game where who defeats the largest number of enemies wins. If the boys knew The Lord of the Rings they would have realised that they're behaving just like Legolas and Gimli.

It doesn't take long before they stand face to face with two Sound shinobi that they know they can't beat as easily as the others. Kyo and Jeong stand in front of them with weapons in their hands. They won't let the Konoha ninja pass without a fight.

"Long time no see." Kim Jeong greets them with a wicked smirk.

"That's my line." Is Kiba´s answer.

The four men are so focused at each other so the battle around them is only a blur. Kiba wants to throw himself at them and he knows Akamaru feels the same, his dog is ready for fight. Akamaru barks threateningly before he growls and approaches the enemy. Kiba follow him. Lee stays a little behind and regards Kiba but is quick to throw himself in the air and deliver a graceful kick into Kyo´s stomach when the man tries to attack Kiba from behind. A loud gasp can be heard and the battle has started. Kiba and Akamaru charges at Jeong together as a full-fledged team and are able to get him off balance. The Korean man falls to the ground and Kiba smirks at this but it disappears when Jeong´s body turns out to be a fake. Kiba and Akamaru find themselves devoured by a cloud of smoke before they see how they're sitting on a bamboo branch that they thought were the enemy.

"Shit!" Kiba curses as he turns around.

But it's too late. A fist touches his chin and the Inuzuka is thrown into the air. Kiba see stars as the pain reaches his brain. Nothing is there to cushion his fall when he hits the ground either. Akamaru´s whimper turns into an angry growl as she charges at Jeong by himself. The Sound ninja doesn´t bother to run and accepts the attack without hesitating. He twitches as Akamaru´s long and sharp teeth pierces the skin of his right arm.

"Way to go Akamaru!" Shouts Lee who has been regarding them while fighting.

Kiba smirks at Lee as if he's saying look how cool my dog is before he realises that Jeong doesn't seem to be bothered by the pain at all. Lee, Kiba and Akamaru stares at the Korean in silence. Lee is forced to groan when Kyo tackles him from the side. The grean beast is able to avoid falling to the ground by doing a graceful turn and counter attack.

"You two aren't very good as a tag team are you?" Jeong comments as he charges at Akamaru.

"Akamaru!" Kiba roars with fear.

Kiba kneels by the dog´s side as he lies whining at the ground. The glare that is directed at Jeong after that would scare the mightiest monster would flinch and that's exactly what the Korean does; flinches. A growl, deeper and more dangerous than ever heard before leaves Kibas slightly parted lips as he gets on his feet and faces Jeong again. Lee and Kyo stops facing when the sound of Kiba echoes through the forest.

"…Kiba?" Lee swallows saliva.

The taijutsu user has never seen his friend so pissed off before and he doesn't know if it's a good or bad sign.

"Lee." Breathes. "Let's do some damn damage!"

Rather be one of the ones

That keeps on trying

Rather be one of the few

That won't stop fighting

Rather be one of the ones

That keeps surviving

I'll be around

Stand my ground

Come whatever

The Squad with back up approaches Grass as fast as their legs permit them to. Ragged breaths echoes among them but no one speaks, they need to save their strength for later. Temari keep her eyes on the horizon far away as she keeps on running. The Suna kunoichi is determinated to reach her friends and kick some ass.

"How long will it take to reach Grass?" Ino asks out loud.

"If we speed up a bit we'll meet with the others in a few hours." Kotetsu replies.

"I hope Sakura is alright…" Ino murmurs.

"That girl will be ok." Kankuro tells her.

Ino looks at him with a surprised face but recalls Sakuras story about how she saved him when he was badly injured once. The older Suna ninja seems to believe in the green eyes medic and that calms Ino´s nerves. She smiles up at him.

"Yeah, I know…"

"Shino, search the area for foes."

Shino doesn't need to be told twice. A swarm of insects leave his sleeves and dashes out into the forest in their hunt for enemy ninja. Ino shivers at the sight of this and it makes Kankuro smirk.

Hinata is travelling in silence and the girl can't relax even though she's surrounded by friends. Her thoughts are with her cousin. White Byakugan eyes flutter as she recalls Neji´s face when he told her he would go after Akai and fight in the war that's threatening Grass. Hinata is scared for Neji, frightened that he'll get hurt letting his emotions take over him at the same time as she knows he's doing the right thing. Hyuuga Neji isn´t in Grass due to orders or a mission, he's there to protect someone very dear to him. Hinata believes that this is the first time Neji fights for someone else that way. Akai…

"Hinata are you alright?" Tenten asks her.

"Ehm… I´m f-f-ine." She stutters. "Just w-worried."

"Me too." She smiles. "But they'll be okay. They're strong and I bet Neji would never let anything happen to Akai."
Hinata´s eyes widen as she realises that Tenten has understood everything and feels the same way. It seems that everyone knows of Neji´s feelings towards Akai but the question is if the cold hearted, stoic Hyuuga understands his feelings as they do.

"I k-k-now Naruto will be alright." Hinata smiles with certainty.

"He always will." Ino adds to the conversation.

The three girls smile at each other before a new silence spread among the group.

Naruto and Neji stops dead in their tracks as they finally find what both of them have been looking for; Uchiha Sasuke. The said man is sitting down comfortably at a corpse that's lying on the ground. Heavenly blue eyes widen as Naruto stares at how Sasuke takes the dead Grass shinobi´s head band and throws it at the ground. Neji frowns at this as the Hyuuga feels how the veins around his eyes grow in size as he concentrates to read the Uchiha. It seems like Sasuke has been waiting for them to arrive.

"Sasuke, you…" Naruto starts.

"I won't return with you Naruto." Sasuke tells him bluntly as he gets to his feet.

An ice-cold silence spread between the three men as Sasuke´s emotionless words starts to make sense. Naruto frowns as Sasuke finally decides to look him in the eye. The look tells Naruto that Sasuke is deadly serious.

"You won't reach him." Neji states the fact in a cold voice, his white eyes doesn't leave Sasuke for one moment.

Naruto flinches as he sees how Neji gets into the famous and well known fighting Hyuuga fighting position. The Jounin keeps one hand in Sasuke´s direction while the other is lowered while he takes a closer look at the Sound ninja´s chakra system. It seems that he hasn't needed to use a lot of chakra at all to defeat the ninja that's lying lifeless at the ground around his feet. The hate that has been building up inside of Neji grows even more as Sasuke starts to grin in a very cocky way. Naruto turns to Neji with a panicked expression.

"I've to try!" Naruto exclaims in a desperate voice. "I'm the only one who can…"

"Hn." Is Neji´s only reply.

The Hyuuga takes a deep breath before he charges forward towards the still smiling Sasuke. White clothes floats around his limbs as Neji lowers himself to the ground as a preparation for his jutsu.

"Neji!" Naruto screams.

"Hakke kushou!"

Neji thrusts his hand towards Sasuke´s chest area and shoots his chakra towards the Uchiha as a deadly weapon. Sasuke was somehow able to understand this and is able to jump out of the way. A pair of dark eyes stares into white ones and Neji, who can see almost everything, notices a small hint of surprise in those dark robs. It's like Sasuke is ignorant of why Neji is doing what he's doing.

"Hyuuga, I don't see why you should charge at me with that kind of fury." Sasuke comments in an indifferent way.

"…" Neji is silent for a long time before he speaks. "Give up and return to Konoha or I´ll drag you there by force."

"I want to see you try." Sasuke smirks. "Katon: Goukakyu no jutsu!"

Sasuke takes a step back, forms the signs and inhales deeply. A large cloud of fire leaves his lips as he exhales and the extremely hot attack is aimed directly at the Hyuuga. Neji understands that he can't fight it head on so he uses his best defence technique to evade it.

"Hakkeshou Kaiten!"

A light blue shield of chakra surrounds the Hyuuga as he spins around and around quickly. The barrier saves him from damage, the fire can't break through it but it also drains his chakra so he must be careful and not use it carelessly. Neji, who is more of an attacker than a person who relies on defence, decides to charge once again. The problem is though that several other Sound shinobi has gathered around them and Naruto is struggling to fight them off. Naruto keeps glancing at Sasuke and Neji over his shoulder while fighting.

"Hakke Rokujuuyon Shou!"

Neji gets into his personal fight position; leaning down with his right hand towards the ground and his left at a higher lever behind him. He attacks when he has gathered enough chakra and takes two Sound ninja by surprise. He strikes them both in their chest and they fall to the ground quickly.

"Two strikes!"

Neji swirls around and kneels down as Sasuke charges at him with a kick and manages to avoid the attack. White, dangerous eyes stare at Sasuke as he delivers the next attack at the Uchiha. With the use of Sharingan Sasuke makes Neji´s attacks bruise him instead of hitting his charka system.

"Four strikes! Neji breathes with a glare.

Sasuke smirks as he jumps away and let's the unknown men take over the fight with both Neji and Naruto. The blonde ninja is using his clones to kick their ass. The two Konoha ninja are outnumbered but are able to continue on due to Naruto´s jutsu. Neji delivers several serious hits to the Sound ninja as his Rokujuuyon shou goes on but no matter how hard he tries he can't reach the real threat.

"Thirty-two strikes!"

Naruto approaches Sasuke successfully and it's now a battle of old rivals. Neji regards them from the corner of his eyes as he reaches the end of his jutsu.

"Sixty-four strikes…!"

A deep breath leaves him when he feels the consequences of the technique; Neji is starting to get drained of chakra. Naruto charges at Sasuke with kunai in hand and manages to throw him of balance. The two falls to the ground and Sasuke uses a small dagger to shield himself from Naruto´s kunai.

"Naruto!" Neji breathes.

Neji rushes to aid his friend but stops ddead in his tracks when he sees how a dangerous light starts to emerge from Sasukes free hand. The sound of one thousand singing birds can be heard for a moment.

"Chidori!" Sasuke roars.

Naruto´s scream echoes through the forest as the lightning hits him in the chest. White eyes widen as Neji leans back to avoid to be hit but he fails and the electricity travels through his limbs in an amazing speed.

It feels like he has been hit by thunder and his muscles in the area he touched are numb and paralysed. The pain makes it hard to breathe and he inhales and exhales with great difficulty. He touches his stomach as if he wishes that he could take the pain away but it makes it worse and he wonders if he has burn marks beneath his white shirt. He groans but his white eyes don't leave Sasuke for one moment. Sasuke has gotten free from Naruto´s hold and is towering over his old friend with a smirk on his lips.

The way Sasuke moves makes Neji believe that he's thinking of doing something that'll hurt him severely and that is when he sees it. That sword…Neji´s white eyes widen. He used that sword to… He recalls the moment he first saw how Uchiha Sasuke pierced Akai with his katana when he used his Byakugan. Her lifeless form, all the blood and his empty eyes haunts him still and Neji thinks for a moment that he still can see her blood on the weapon. It seems like Sasuke is about to charge the metal weapon with the help of his chidori to kill Naruto. A moment is all it takes for the Hyuuga to react and charge, disarming him in one quick, swift movement.

"…!"

The blade, that is stained with blood, flies through the air and pierces the ground, wobbling before it gets balanced. The metallic sound echoes loudly in Neji´s ears even though the sound of the battles around them should have made it impossible to hear. Bloody red eyes stare at him with surprise and anger but he doesn't let the impact of the Uchiha´s gaze affect him. He can't afford to and don't have to since his Byakugan is the stronger of their two eye- kekkei genkai, he is certain of it. Sasuke´s eyes widen a fraction when he realises the determination behind Neji´s equally strong and hateful glare.

"You're serious." It's not a question.

"I'm always serious." Is Neji´s cold answer.

Neji doesn't give Sasuke a chance to reply or continue to attack Naruto since he once again charges with his quick and accurate fists. Even though they're accurate is Sasuke able to dodge a lot of them quite easily with help from his Sharingan and quickness. Through his Byakugan Neji regards his opponents chakra system and aims for the points that'll make it impossible for Sasuke to use his chakra at all. It's difficult to hit them with his gentle fist since Sasuke can foresee his movements with his kekkei genkai, much to Neji´s disadvantage.

Just before Neji is about to strike one of Sasuke´s vital points a hand grabs his arm in a very violent and desperate way. Neji´s eyes widen as he comes face to face with Naruto and the genius realises that his team mate and friend is going to shield Sasuke with his own body.

"Neji, don't!" Naruto screams in a desperate way.

"…Naruto!" Neji´s eyes widen.

Neji uses all his might to stop the movement of his body so he won't harm the blonde but the collision is unavoidable. Neji feels how intense pain invades him as he crashes into Naruto with full force. Their heads collide, he bites his tongue so it starts to bleed and he loses his breath as they fall to the ground in a heap. A loud, pained gasp leaves Naruto´s lips as he tries to get up from his location beneath the Hyuuga.

"You foolish-"

"Let me do this Neji!" He interrupts the one-year-older man. "I'm the only one who can make him change his mind."

"It's useless!" Neji growls at him in an uncharacteristic way. "He has already chosen his path! And he almost killed you."

"I want to be one of the ones that keeps on trying!"

Neji´s eyes widen as he stares into Naruto´s blue determinated eyes. The Hyuuga doesn't know if Naruto is brave or only foolish to think like that.

"I still have faith in him." Naruto adds.

Naruto gets to his feet and leave Neji behind as he approaches Sasuke.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!"