Chapter Fourteen: Welcome to Hell

Temari moved toward the arena like a woman on death row. She clutched her head as slowly a change of expression began to overtake her. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no! Please no, I don't want this to happen again!"

She struggled there for a long moment, and then her body posture took on a complete change. That same confidence overtook her as she walked down into the arena with a smirk. Neji watched as she did and then looked to where Kiba was leaping down into the arena.

"Why would she be the only one who remembers me?" murmured Neji to himself.

"Alright, Akimaru, let's go," said Kiba.

"You think that you and your little dog stand a chance against me?" asked Temari with a smirk. "Good luck."

"Hey, don't go mocking Akimaru!" said Kiba. "We're a team, and no one can beat us when we're together!"

"Whatever you say," said Temari. "I'll give you three free hits."

Silence.

"Three free hits?" asked Hinata. "Um, that seems like a pretty big risk, don't you think?"

"Fine by me," said Kiba. "I don't have a problem winning quickly. Let's go, Akimaru!"

"Woof," said the dog.

The man-beast transformation took place, and both of them attacked with surprising fury. Before Temari could react, Kiba had punched her across the face. She fell, only to be bashed from behind by Akimaru. Kiba slammed her in the gut hard then bashed her against the floor.

And then they started kicking Temari when she was down.

"How does it feel, you murderer!" snarled Kiba. "Not so much fun when you're helpless and beaten, is it?!"

"Knock it off, the match is over!" said Kankuro. "That's enough!"

"The hell it is!" snarled Kiba. "It's enough because it's happening to you! I saw you, Sand Ninja, in action! You have murdered every single team of genin you ran across so far!

"I might not be able to take out the demon over there with the Sand Gourd, but I sure as hell can kill her!" And he raised foot.

Abruptly, several jonin appeared and pulled Kiba away. "Match is over."

"Get off me!" snarled Kiba. "You haven't seen what I saw them do! What they let happen!"

Temari was helped up, having managed to cover her face reasonably well from the beatdown. She coughed heavily but waved off support, limping her way back up. Then she sat down in the corner.

"Why does this keep happening to me!" said Temari. "I'm a talented Shinobi! My wind powers could one-shot most of the people here! But..." She almost sobbed. "But I can't do anything! I couldn't react, you know. I knew he was going to attack me all out; I saw he was going to brutalize me, but...

"But the old me couldn't see it, so I couldn't do it."

Neji considered that no one else seemed to be paying any heed to her. The phantom of what might have been a stretched being led out of the gates played before him. Pausing, he moved over to her. "The loops force you to be in-character, Temari. One shift into the mindset they were in before the loops began. When you walked into the battlefield, you were completely overconfident.

"If your build hadn't been custom-tailored to destroy Tenten, you'd have been defeated."

"But it's not fair!" said Temari. "Why should I have to go through this over and over again just for being a little overconfident? I was supposed to beat her?!"

"You're assuming you were put in this position because it was just that you be in it," said Neji. "And also that your overconfidence was the problem."

"You guys seem like you're in pretty good company," said Tenten. "Computer is running."

Neji felt his old self manifesting, and as he did, he looked up to see the computer coming to a result. He knew he'd be in it before it even spoke. "Next match;

"Neji Hyuga Vs. Misumi."

"Not again," said Neji.

He waited there, feeling insulted at having to face Misumi. For a moment, he stayed where he was. He looked to where Misumi was stepping into the ring.

"So, I get stuck with the Hyuga Brat," he murmured.

"Neji, you're up," said Rock Lee. "Are you not going to fight?"

For a moment, Neji wrestled with the takeover. However, it was inevitable in the end. So he let his old self take over and spoke. "Yes, I am aware, Lee."

Neji moved into the ring and stood before Misumi at the ready. "You will regret your impertinence in a moment, I assure you. Forfeit now, and you may avoid time in the infirmary."

"Wanna bet?" asked the man.

The match began, and Misumi shot forward like a snake. Neji moved aside from him and parried a strike from his fist. However, the arm seemed to slither and bend around him as Misumi's entire body became like a snake. Soon he was coiled around him and beginning to choke him. Neji felt his hands around his neck.

"What's the matter? Are your hands tied?" asked Mizuki. "Now forfeit, or I'll snap your-"

Neji touched Misumi's heart. There was a scream, and the man recoiled, falling back. As he gasped on the ground, Neji stood over him. "The gentle fist is not a technique that requires force. Forfeit, and I may allow you to keep your internal organs."

"I give up! I give up!" said Misumi.

"Excellent," said Neji.

"Neji Hyuga is the winner," said the announcer.

No one said anything.

There was dead silence from the group, and Neji found this... irritating. Some commentary or insight into his victory would have been nice. But then, it had not been much of a match. Misumi had never stood a chance, given his build.

But surely some sort of commentary.

Misumi's teammate didn't seem to care he'd lost. Rock Lee just seemed to accept it, and Tenten just seemed unsurprised.

"No one is cheering for me," realized Neji.

No one cared that he had won.

There had been a time when Kin and her team might have been mildly pleased he'd won. But that loop was over. And Neji's own team were, if anything, hoping he got knocked down a peg. It made him bitter, as he came to lean out over the ring.

"What's your deal?" asked Tenten.

"My deal?" asked Neji.

"Well, you don't look like someone who won a match and made it into the finals," said Tenten.

"Was anyone actually glad I won it?" asked Neji flatly.

"I dunno," said Tenten. "Are you?"

Neji considered the question. "...No.

"I took him to pieces easily. There was no accomplishment in it. No one cared which one of us won the fight. No one was happy I won or sad Misumi was defeated.

"It was meaningless."

"At least nobody is laughing at you," said Temari, who seemed in good health. She was almost recovered, as if...

"I would almost prefer that," admitted Neji.

"Next match:" said the announcer. "Rock Lee Vs. Shikamaru."

Lee was going to win.

"Alright, Bushy Brows! Go to it!" said Naruto.

"Yeah, Lee! Win this!" said Tenten.

"Go Shikamaru!" called Ino.

Neji looked at Tenten, hard. She shifted under his gaze. "...What?"

"You didn't cheer at all for me like that," said Neji.

"I thought you didn't want me to," said Tenten, shifting uneasily.

"Alright, begin," said the announcer.

Lee and Shikamaru faced one another down, and Lee took a stance. "Although we were allies in the previous fight Shikamaru, do not expect me to hold back."

"Ugh, this is such a drag," said Shikamaru.

Then he sent forth his shadow. However, Lee sped away with immense speed. Trying to get around the shadow, he dodged and weaved around Shikamaru's attempts.

"You are trying to capture me in your Shadow Jutsu; however, I can move far faster than you," said Lee. "So long as I remain on the move, you will not be able to keep up with me."

"You'll have to stop sometime," noted Shikamaru, frowning as he sent his shadow out again and again.

"Shikamaru is really keeping him on the run, huh, Ino?" asked Choji.

"Nope," said Ino. "Shikamaru! Use a different strategy before he knocks you out!"

"What?" said Shikamaru. "But this is my only technique."

"What about explosive tags?" asked Ino.

"Right-" began Shikamaru.

And then Rock Lee hurled a kunai at him. Shikamaru dodged, and in an instant, he was distracted, Rock Lee was in front of him.

"Oh," said Shikamaru.

One punch sent Shikamaru spinning away, back into the audience area to land with a crash. Ino blinked. "Well, at least you don't have to climb the stairs, huh?"

"Shikamaru is down," said the announcer. "Rock Lee wins."

"Nice job, Lee!" said Tenten.

"Better luck next time, Shikamaru," said Choji.

"Maybe you should actually put some work in next time," said Ino.

"I did put some work in," said Shikamaru.

For a moment, Neji thought that they had a much better team dynamic than his own team. He almost contemplated the possibility of being more like them. Then, all of a sudden, his eye fixed on the Sound Ninja. And he saw the place where Kin no longer was. All that had been left of her had been bloodstains before, and now there was nothing at all.

Choji had suffered the same fate last loop. And Gaara was right there.

"What is wrong with you?!" said Neji. "Kin was crushed to death a few minutes ago, Sakura is in critical condition, and none of you even care!"

Something stopped, or perhaps something began to beat. Everything seemed to shift and change, so the world went static. Then it went on, but no one was listening. Everyone went on as though Neji had said nothing.

"It's like looking into a mirror, isn't it?" asked Tenten.

Neji turned to her. "What do you mean by that?"

"Nothing, nevermind," said Tenten, looking away.

"No, what did you mean by that?" asked Neji. She'd been dropping hints now and then that he'd ignored until now. "You know something, don't you?"

"I think you'd rather not know what I know, Neji," said Tenten.

Neji calculated and came to a conclusion. "...This is a genjutsu or some form of illusion.

"You're not Tenten, are you?"

"No, I am. I just... this is real, Neji," said Tenten.

"Where are we, then?" asked Neji. "This is not a tournament."

"This is the afterlife," said Tenten. "You're dead."

A long silence followed.

Neji looked around and saw no sign of the others. The entire area around them was empty. He looked to Tenten, who had all the same mannerisms. "Dead?

"I am not dead! I mean, how, when did this happen?"

"Does it matter?" asked Tenten. "Maybe when you alienated all those kids in the first loop, and they ganged up on you, they hit you too hard. Maybe you never made it to the tournament at all. Maybe you made it into the tournament and were K.O's in the finals.

"It's not important right now.

"What is important is that your heart stopped a few moments ago in the real world, leading you to be here."

Neji looked around at the statue and room. "This is the afterlife."

"Your afterlife, yes," said Tenten. "A place outside of time and space where your immortal soul resides."

"Why?" asked Neji.

"I don't know, you tell me," said Tenten. "Why would a warrior who held others in contempt. One who took no responsibility for their actions. Why would they end up in an eternal tournament where their dark path began."

"I didn't do anything wrong," said Neji. "I was supposed to defeat Sakura; it's not my fault if she stabbed herself."

"It kind of is," said Tenten. "You deliberately broke her spirit. If she'd committed suicide the next day, you wouldn't have cared. You only tried to stop her because it was happening in front of you.

"Also, the problem is less about your actions and more the attitude you have about them. They're the reason you've been damned."

"Damned? I'm..." Neji paused. "I can't be in hell." For one thing, as far as eternal torment went, this was a pretty poor example.

"Actually, yes you are, and I'm the devil," said Tenten. "Or, your devil. Well, more specifically, the entity assigned to your case. It's sort of... ambiguous, think of me as a caseworker. I tell you things you don't want to hear because I care.

"Believe me, it could have been worse.

"You're lucky you died young; someone with your kind of attitude could have ended up somewhere a lot lower."

"Lower I..." Neji halted.

"Well yeah, you're like, thirteen. Right now, you're mostly just a moody teenager with some serious issues," said Tenten. "If you weren't trained to kill people, you'd have probably gotten over them.

"You should have seen the timeline where you grew up after the first loop. The one where I died."

Neji looked around. "What about Temari, the others?"

"Oh, Temari is real, and you killed her in a possible future," said Tenten. "It's a bit complicated, but it has to do with the circumstances of both your deaths.

"Neither of you remembers it because time doesn't work here the same way it does in the mortal plane. You could run into someone in hell who died moments ago but who lived centuries from your own time.

"The others are also real, sort of. So am I. We're... not all there."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Neji.

"Well, hell is by nature a lower plane of existence," said Tenten. "As one becomes a better person, their awareness and influence expand. It's just that it's on a spiritual level, so you can't see it in the physical world. What you see around you is them, but not them.

"These are your perceptions of the people around you, given form around you. They are within your thoughts and you, to an extent, are within theirs. Though they haven't noticed you."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Neji.

"Well, let's just say that hell is a bit smaller on the outside than it is on the inside," said Tenten. "What you've been interacting with are projections of those in the tournament. They are given form by your perception of them. So these are aspects of them, but not the people themselves.

"As your perception of them changes, so too does the aspect of them you see."

"I've heard such concepts may be applied to God," said Neji. "That he has many faces, all equally him, and all different. I had not thought it applied to ordinary people.

"Why the tournament?"

"Because it's what you always wanted," said Tenten. "Everybody gets what they want; not everyone likes it."

"You think I wanted to be trapped inside this blood sport indefinitely?" asked Neji.

"Well, not this exactly. You didn't imagine it this way," said Tenten. "But everything you really wanted out of life is here, even if you didn't realize it. Your entire life has been nothing but bitterness and anger, Neji. When was the last time you wished for something positive?"

Neji considered that. "...I thought Hinata ought to end up with Naruto."

"Because it would shame the Main Clan," said Tenten. "I've got your whole file, Neji, alongside every thought and deed you've ever done. Wishing people together in the hope they'll make your enemies miserable doesn't count.

"And I know that you were planning a murder."

Neji stiffened at the word. "...I was not."

"You didn't admit it to yourself, but you were," said Tenten. "You've spent your entire life hating the Main Branch, and Hinata was in this tournament. You were practically praying to get into a match with Hinata. You told yourself you'd give her a chance to back down because she was doomed to lose, you told yourself—something about destiny.

"But it was really because you wanted to kill her.

"By murdering Hinata, you'd have given the ultimate final insult to Hiashi in public. In so doing, you'd also inflame hatreds between the Main and Branch Clans more than ever. And if she did back out, it would have shattered what confidence you've gained.

"You don't care about becoming a Chunin because your career is just a means to an end;

"Vengeance on the Main Branch.

"This tournament is really what you've been waiting your entire life for. It's your entire reality."

"Just because I have a justified vendetta with the Main Branch doesn't make it my entire reality," said Neji.

"Well then, isn't it convenient that the other parts of your life are all here as well," said Tenten. "Your team, the closest thing you have to friends and family, are all here. They are unable to leave or interfere with your actions in any way. At the same time, you will never suffer any long term consequences.

"You have the ability to use your skills to their utmost whenever you want, mostly gaining victory. And you have ample opportunity to deconstruct and insult the people. All of them are deeply flawed individuals, and you can easily pick them apart. That was your main passion, finding other people's flaws.

"The person you wanted revenge on are easily within reach. You always hated Hinata for squandering what you perceived as your birthright. Eventually, you'll face her and be able to do anything you want to hear. You already did once before."

"Except I won't," said Neji, peering down at the tournament. "That's not really Hinata down there. It's a construct that has nothing to do with the real Main Clan. Hurting her won't hurt them."

"How much did Hinata have to do with what happened to your Father?" asked Tenten simply.

Neji shifted. "It's not about Hinata.

"It's about hurting the Main Clan."

"Do you think Hiashi cares what happens to Hinata?" asked Tenten. "He disowned her for not being able to fight.

"And anyway, did you really want the Branch Clan to rise up in rebellion? They'd all be massacred with perfect legality."

"Yes," said Neji simply with complete truthfulness.

Tenten paused. "...wow, you're uh... a lot more hardcore about this than I expected, aren't you?"

"I'm not a hypocrite," said Neji. "I want to kill the entire Main Branch and make them suffer like I suffered as my Father suffered. The only reason I haven't pursued that goal until now is that it isn't practical.

"But if I had to choose between continued slavery and death for us, I would choose the latter."

"But you know it wouldn't be right, don't you?" asked Tenten. "Even if you killed a bunch of the Main Clan or all of them, it would solve nothing. It would just weaken the Leaf and lead to another Hyuga Affair.

"And you hate the Cloud even more than the Main Clan. You just can't get at them. You don't want them to win any more than the Hyuga."

"I suppose," said Neji. If his only consideration had been vengeance on the Main Branch, his policy would be simple. He'd pull an Itachi Uchiha would have been his method. All he'd have to do is get strong enough and wear a mask.

"He did not want the Leaf to burn.

"I think you've been trying to self-destruct before you can become an even greater threat," said Tenten. "You want to kill off Hinata to hurt Hiashi while also having a low impact on the Leaf as a whole."

"What of it?" asked Neji.

"Have you considered that from that perspective, this is what you wanted?" asked Tenten.

Neji peered down into the match below and shrugged. "...Just run the next match."

"If that's what you want," said Tenten.

The computer ran again, and the others returned to existence.