The next day, the exam started. A massive horde had gathered in their seats in the spectator row, both Uchiha parents, Hinata and Kiba were present whereas in the Hokage booth, Lord third, Fourth, Kushina and Itachi as well as Shisui stood.
The first match was going to be between Naruto and Neji, and oh boy was he waiting for this...
Neji and Naruto entered the arena and Neji smirked whilst Naruto growled, just the sight of Neji was enough to make him angry. He now knew why Hinata was shy, why she was afraid of showing off her skills...because this bastard had beaten the fear into her, tormented her, mentally tortured the poor girl to the point where she only stutters when she faces him. It wasn't always like that...but now...
Now was different, she stuck to the shadows, her confidence was shattered to the point where she'd give up before even trying. All because of Neji!
"Well? Anything you'd like to say to me?" Neji taunted and Naruto glared at him, pointing a fist towards him "Only what I told you before!". The proctor then starts the match and Naruto produces shadow clones, saving his secret move for later.
The clones came at Neji all at once, he activated his byakugan and took up his taijutsu stance. "Oh give it up!" Neji shouts as he performs his rotation technique, taking not only Naruto but Hasahi and Minato by surprise as well since a branch family member isn't supposed to know that.
All the Naruto clones vanish but Naruto stands defiantly against the Hyuga genius. "Why?!" Naruto asks
"Come again?" Neji replies
"Why? Why would you do this to Hinata? She was prefect before, she still is mind you. What've you done to her? Why would you even care!". Naruto charges towards Neji who dodges the savage punch. Neji explains the whole situation to Naruto and about the caged bird seal, when he did that, Naruto couldn't help but feel sympathy towards the Hyuga as he heard Miziuki's words that night flood back into his thoughts.
'YOU ARE THE NINE TAILED FOX! THAT SEAL IN YOUR STOMACH? THAT MEANS YOUR FATHER SACRIFICED YOUR LIFE TO THE DEMON! YOU ARE THE DEMON!'
Naruto clenched the area of his where the seal was located as his face fell drastically and he thought to himself 'Oh Neji...if only you knew that you're not the only one...'. But still, Naruto had to punish Neji for what he did to Hinata.
He regained his fierce look and pushed on.
Up on the spectator rail, Hashi Hyuga could only feel shame as Neji had shouted everything. He could feel the glares of all the people weighing down upon him. Even Sasuke felt sorry for Neji, Kurama and even Hinata felt the same too...maybe...they shouldn't have judged.
Even so, he had to be punished for what he did to Hinata...but Hinata didn't quite want to see Neji pounded into the ground anymore, if anything, she wanted to run away in disgrace and shame...for she now felt disgust towards the main household and...herself for not seeing it sooner.
Minato scrowled as he hated the way the branch family was treated and Kushina couldn't help but feel sympathy for every branch family member.
Down bellow with Neji and Naruto...
The Hyuga genius was fighting at his level best against the son of the Hokage. They both broke off their attacks and stood on opposite sides of the arena, Naruto then thought to himself 'Ok...now's the time, I'll use my rassengan and that move against Neji...I just want to end it fast'.
Naruto charged, chakra building up in his the palm of his right hand. He then took out a normal kunai from his pouch and threw it past Neji who smirked in victory "WHAT WAS THAT?!" Neji chuckled.
The rassengan was now fully powered up, and to say that Minato was shocked was an understatement. He was so proud that he couldn't find the words to express his joy.
"SO LONG NARUTO UZUMAKI!" Neji shouted as he thrusted the first two finger of his left hand forwards in a jab, in order to destroy Naruto's chakra network. But before it could make contact, Naruto vanished and appeared from behind where the Kunai was.
"FLYING RAIJIN!" He shouted as he slammed his rassengan into Neji's back making him slam into the ground, making a crater upon impact. But Naruto wasn't finished yet, a shadow clone kicked Neji up into the air, marking him with a raijin formula.
The clone then did his own rassengan, and he and Naruto essentially destroyed Neji. The Hyuga was on the floor of the arena when Naruto loomed over him. "OH GO ON! GET IT OVER WITH! KILL ME! IT DOESN'T MATTER! I'M ONLY A BRANCH MEMBER AFTER ALL, I'M IRRELEVANT COMPARED TO HINATA!" Neji shouted.
But he just stands there, unmoving, his face scrunches up in sadness as he knows what Neji's going through. "No" He responds.
"NO?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN NO!" Neji demands as he glares at Naruto. "I mean this match is over...you can't move". Neji tries to move but can't and then he hears Naruto whisper "Oh Neji...if only you knew that you aren't the only one with a seal like that". Neji finally calms down and frowns as he tires to assess the meaning of his sentence.
"The winner of this match...is Naruto Uzumaki!" says the proctor and the arena erupts into cheers, despite what everyone's feeling at the moment about Neji. Minato was beyond happy and had his breath taken away when he saw Naruto perform the flying raijin, he was SO proud of his son.
Naruto returns to the spectator platform and high fives his friends, Hinata on the other hand jumps right in and hugs Naruto which shocks him and the others. "H...Hinata"
"Thank you for sparing him Naruto-Kun". Naruto smiles and hugs her back, faint cries of 'AWWWW' could be heard in the background "You're welcome princess".
Sasuke and Kurama join in for a group hug and they settle down...where they bear witness to a new match between Shikamaru and Temari. As they sit down, Naruto is deep in thought and is thinking...how could he have not known about Neji's suffering. To be a Hokage means to know about and to do something about the villagers sufferings, but Naruto was blind to Neji's pain.
In truth, this may be officially come off as a victory, but in all reality this was one of Naruto's...greatest defeat!
