SailorStar9: Wha...? So, are only two people reading this fic? Anyway, Chapter 36 goes up, this is Chapter 37. To all my non-reviewing readers, I love you all! Will love you more if you review! *hugs all round!*
Disclaimers: I do not own both the animes. However, I do own the pairing, I hope.
Chapter 37: The Fourth Exam Starts
The night before, in the Guardians' mansion...
"You know the plans." Angel stated.
"Right." the assembled Guardians nodded.
"Hn." was the only response the Guardian of Light got from her 'Bonded'.
The next day...
Sakura sat in the front row of the stadium, next to Ino and Choji, who had been released form the hospital, and was currently on his third pack of diet chips.
"Sasuke-kun's going to win hands down!" the two chanted, arm in arm and a large, 'We love Sasuke-kun' banner raised in the air. Choji wisely chose to keep his mouth shut.
Hinata sat next to Kiba, who had offered to escort her there, since she was still technically unfit to leave the hospital, and was looking at the arena, where most of the competitors had already gathered.
Naruto was nowhere in sight, but that did not seem to bother the heiress much, as she place a hand to her chest.
Naruto-kun...you'll be here...I know it. She prayed.
Sarutobi sighed as he looked over the scene, clearly upset. Sasuke is absent too…what the hell are you doing, Kakashi?
Looking over at the Kazekage, he scowled, remembering the warning Hayate gave him and the plans the Guardians presented after that.
So, Orochimaru thinks he can catch us off guard huh? The aged Hokage mused. Not on the Guardians' watch.
The Kazekage felt the Hokage's knowing glare and began to sweat, worried that the plan may be discovered, until the older Kage smiled and offered him a peanut.
"Ohayo, Sakura-san." Lee greeted, as he hobbled over on his crutches. Gai stood behind him, like a sentinel, ready to cart his ward back to hospital should the need arise.
"Have the matches started yet?" the mini-Gai asked
Just as the kunoichi was about to answer, there was a swirl of leaves, which blinded everyone down in the arena.
When it cleared, Naruto stood next to a startled Hyuuga Neji.
In the arena...
The Naruto in the stadium was a lot different from the Naruto everyone saw at the tower though; while, he still maintained his old gear-up, his hair had gotten longer, that it had to be tied in a small ponytail, and if anyone bothered to look closely, he was reading the third in the 'Famous Shinobi Throughout History And Their Achievements' series.
However, the most startling thing was that, even though he was standing right next to Neji, the Hyuuga prodigy could barely feel his presence.
Naruto turned the page in his book with an almost bored expression on his face, before looking up at the senbon chewing Shinobi Aoba, cocking an eyebrow.
"Am I late?" he asked.
Aoba snorted at the obviously rhetorical question.
"Actually, you're right on time." he smirked, "You were cutting it pretty close though."
If this statement bothered the blonde at all he did not show it, and so Aoba turned around and faced the audience, clearing his throat.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, the Chuunin selection exam finals are about to begin!"
As the roars of the crowd filled the Arena, Naruto ran an analytical eye over the competitors, noticing that two were missing, namely Dosu and Sasuke.
"The sound guy I could care less about…but where the hell is Sasuke?" the blonde muttered, trying to get a feeling on his teammate's chakra. When his search came up empty, he snorted. Kakashi-sensei better not have passed his tardiness traits on to him.
"The first Round will be Uzumaki Naruto versus Hyuuga Neji." Aoba called out addressing both the crowd and the contenders. "Contestants to the centre, all others, please leave the arena via the exits."
As the other Chuunin hopefuls made their way to the exits, Naruto marked his place and put away his book, eying his opponent opponent carefully.
He cracked his neck while Neji glared at him. He sensed no fear for him, no trace of doubt. He must have actually believed that he could win this fight. It made him grin a little. Naruto looked at him curiously.
"What's so funny?" Naruto asked
"I'm amused that you seem to think that you are going to win this fight. Like I told your friend, your fate is determined. My eyes can see it." Neji informed
"Just like they saw you ass on the ground after Hinata-chan tossed you?" he asked jokily. Neji glared at him. He did not enjoy watching Hinata get praised for her performance at the preliminaries. His uncle, a man that condemned his cousin to be failure, was now showing her the Eight Divination Signs, Sixty-Four Palms of the Hand. It made his blood boil.
Naruto smirked at Neji's angry expression. "Like I told you before, your talk of faith is nothing but bullshit. Hinata-chan proved it and now I'm about to prove it."
"I would like to see you try." Neji snarled and got into his fighting stance. Naruto did the same.
In the stands...
"Wow, Naruto sure pissed him off. I'm not sure that's a good thing." Kiba said to Hinata.
"I h-have faith that Naruto-kun w-will win." She told him. Kiba just shrugged until he heard two Chuunin talking about how Naruto did not stand a chance. I would think so too but after what I saw I'm more worried about Neji rather than Naruto.
In the arena...
Naruto looked at the Byakugan user with a critical eye. 'All right, I know that they could see chakra points and have a vision of 360 degrees but each Hyuuga is quite different. Let's see how good this guy really is.' He crossed his fingers and called out his attack. "Shadow Replication!"
Five Narutos appeared and pulled out kunais. Neji looked and saw that each clone had the same chakra running through them. He could not tell which was the really one but that did not matter. The results would be the same. All six Narutos moved toward Neji. They moved real fast so it was like a blur. Neji dodged the first strike and blocked the roundhouse kick to his head. All of them attacked, not giving Neji time to counter but the Hyuuga prodigy was not fazed. He easily dodged and blocked every attack and hit them with Juuken strikes. All of them were dispelled but Neji was curious about something.
Wait, there was only five. Where's the sixth one? He got his answer when Naruto popped out from the ground. Neji bent back quickly to avoid his slash but Naruto spinning side kick caught him in the chest. The Hyuuga skid back while Naruto jumped back a few paces. He held the kunai and noticed something that made him smile.
"Well, looks like I drew first blood. Not bad for the dead-last." Naruto commented. Neji looked shocked but saw that there was blood on his kunai. He touched his cheek and felt the scratch. He was not happy about that and Naruto's grin was not helping.
In the stands...
"No way, Naruto actually cut the Hyuuga prodigy?" Ino said. She was sitting with Sakura and Lee. Ino found it quite funny how Sakura was tending to the weird Genin but he seemed to be enjoying it.
"Naruto's flames of youth know no bounds." Lee shouted. The man he cloned from agreed with equal flair.
"But Lee, aren't you a little upset with what happening? You told me that it was your goal to defeat Neji." Sakura said
"It still is but I still feel happy that Naruto with do what I couldn't do. A ninja of hard work defeating a prodigy." Lee said with a smile. He also gave a thumbs up.
"That's the spirit Lee. To your dedication, I will run 500 laps around Konoha." Gai cheered
"No sensei, we should do 1000 laps around Konoha." Lee added.
"Why 1000, we should do." Gai stated.
Of course, this set the taijutsu master off on another of his crying spiels, as he and Lee embraced in a sight so sweet it caused teeth, and brain cells, to rot.
"Ok, that's enough. Let's just get back to the match please?" Sakura sighed while she pinched the bridge of her nose. Ino just giggled at her friend's lament.
In the arena...
Naruto placed his kunai away and decided to get serious. He did a few hand seals and took a deep breath. "Water Release: Water Dragon Projectile!" Naruto blasted a stream of water at Neji. While he was surprised, he quickly composed him self and began to spin. The water hit Neji full on but Naruto noticed that the liquid was circling. He stopped his attack and watched as the flames were blown away by whatever Neji did. Neji gave him a smirk as a ring of water surrounded him.
"So, you do know the Heavenly Spin. That's surprising for a Branch member." Naruto noted
"Are you worried?" Neji asked
"More curious than worried, I thought such a move was only taught to the Main house of the Hyuuga clan. Don't tell me that faith had been good to you to learn such a move. Hell, I remember that the Sixty-Four Palms of the Hand is also a Main house technique." Naruto said with a smile. Neji frowned at that.
"Well, that's none of my business so let's get back to the fight." Naruto shrugged and did a few hand seals again and slammed his foot on the ground. "Earth Release: Swamp of the Underground!" Neji watched as the ground him gave way and he began to sink in the mucky water. He quickly channeled some chakra into his feet before he could sink. When he sure that he would not fall in he stood up and was introduced to Naruto's fist. He dodged the punch barely and jumped away when Naruto tried to kick him.
Neji got into his stance and activated his Byakugan. Suddenly, he felt his ankles get grabbed. He wasn't giving time to think when Naruto picked his up to reveal a Naruto chain. Neji was taken for a ride as the chain spun him like ball tied to a rope. Suddenly, he was thrown into the air. Five Narutos broke apart from the chain and attacked.
"U,"
"Zu,"
"Ma,"
"Ki," four of the Narutos said and kicked the Hyuuga in several places. He turned to see a shadow above him. "Naruto Rendan!!!" Naruto said and placed and axe kick in Neji's chest. Neji was sent flying back toward the swampy water. Naruto grabbed a clone and threw it toward Neji. The clone grabbed Neji back his ankles and began to turned into a ball. As they got closer to the water, Naruto threw him with all his strength. Neji hit the water with such force that it caused the water to splash and jump up. Naruto landed on the water along with all his other clones.
In the stands...
The whole crowd was silent as they watched this fight. Naruto, the village parish, was owning Neji, the Hyuuga genius. It just was not possible but it was happening in front of them. Shikamaru and Shino were very impressed by the plan that he put together.
"So he made clones when he dug underground in the beginning. He knows that the Byakugan can't see that well underground and used it to his advantage." Shino said
"The kit isn't called the most surprising ninja for nothing." Keena chuckled.
Shikamaru muttered a 'Troublesome' under his breath.
Temari looked on with worry, not because this guy was good but Gaara was very into this fight.
Did he find other one worth his time? When did this happen? she thought.
In the arena...
Naruto stood on the swampy water and waited for Neji to rise up from the water. He knew that the fight was no where near over. Suddenly, the water began to churn and spin. After a while the water was sent back by a furious blast. The clones were dispelled and the real Naruto landed badly on the ground. He felt his arm twist out but he easily put it back in the socket. He moved his arms a little to get the feeling back. He stood and walked to the edge of what was once his swamp. In the middle, stood a very wet and very pissed off Neji. Naruto just prepared himself for battle.
SailorStar9: Now that's done, read and review.