DISCLAIMER: Naruto is property of Masashi Kishimoto. Shefalls holds no claim to it.

Edited: 01/04/2021

The Leaves of the Tree

14.

"He's going to lose."

"No, he isn't. He'll pound that jerk's ass."

"Agree to disagree, then."

"Hmph!"

Sakura and Tenten stood close together, leaning on the rail around the arena and sharing a bag of chips. Sakura pointedly turned her torso away from Tenten and the other girl had scrunched up her face in annoyance. They were openly annoyed and in the middle of a disagreement, but also nervous over the same thing – which encouraged them to seek comfort from each other. Below, on the ground, Naruto was stretching with an angry frown marring his usually bright expression. In front of him Neji stood stoically, completely unbothered.

"You really think Naruto can handle this, Forehead?" Ino asked frankly and Sakura turned around to meet her best friend's stern gaze. Unlike Tenten, Ino was asking solely for Sakura's sake – it was easy to see she didn't much care who would win, but worried for Sakura.

"I do, Ino-Pig," Sakura nodded and flashed Ino a confident smile. "Naruto's got this. Believe it!"

"Believe it, huh?" Ino huffed, and came over to lean on Sakura's free side. "I'll believe it when I see it."

"Then keep your eyes wide open," Sakura warned and then yelled loudly, "beat him up Naruto! Shannaro!"

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto waved cheerfully, "believe it!"

"Pathetic," Neji said flatly, and that one comment silenced the buzzing conversations happening all over the front rows of the arena. This silence carried and spread all over until it reigned supreme, to the point one could hear a pin drop into the sand below.

"What did you say?" Naruto growled and those who knew him well would've heeded the warning in his tone, because Naruto was never quiet, nor serious. Not unless he was fuming.

Neji, of course, didn't know Naruto. So all he did was sneer, which would've been just fine had he not followed it by opening his mouth and talking.

"I said, you're pathetic," Neji mocked, not showing an ounce of the famous Hyuuga restraint.

'Well damn,' Inner Sakura mused.

"You don't have a chance here. You were born to lose to me, we come from different worlds."

'Ooh,' Inner Sakura whistled, 'that's harsh.'

"Your destiny is to always be nothing."

'Oi! Uncalled for!' Inner Sakura yelled.

'Will you shut up?!' Sakura wailed, 'you're distracting!'

"And anyone who supports you are equally as pathetic, idiotic and weak as you are."

Tenten promptly put her face in her hands and groaned, while Sakura felt her mouth twitch.

"Boy done did it," Ino said flatly, completely unimpressed.

"What did you just call Sakura-chan?" Naruto all but snarled.

"Pathetic," Neji said slowly, mockingly. "Idiotic and weak, just. Like. You."

In the stands above them, Sakura picked up on Jiraiya's badly muffled laughter. It was echoed loudly in her own head, by Inner Sakura who was having the time of her life measuring the depth of the grave Neji had just dug for himself.

"Neji, you moron," Tenten complained, "you absolute moron."

"You can say whatever you want about me," Naruto said coldly, "but never, ever, insult my friends. Especially not Sakura-chan!"

Then he lunged.

"It's not gonna be an open casket," Sakura said dryly when Naruto's fist connected solidly with the surprised Neji's jaw. Clearly, the Hyuuga prodigy didn't expect Naruto to be quite that fast.

"He just had to bait him," Ino rolled her eyes, "dude doesn't have a shot against an angry Naruto. Freak can go on for days."

"I told him to shut up," Tenten moaned in defeat. "I warned him so many times. Why can't he ever listen to me?!"

Sakura was sorely tempted to say it was because Neji was a dick, but below them the rude boy had gathered his wits and was pushing back against Naruto's angry assault. It was too fast, his recovery rate. Or rather, Naruto's pace significantly slowed down. After that first fast and harsh punch, Naruto almost seemed to falter, and if Sakura didn't know any better she'd say that hit was a lucky shot.

But she did know better.

Sakura trained with Naruto every morning for close to two years now. She knew exactly what he could do. She'd seen him keep up with Lee's furious pace for close to twenty minutes during their last spar together. Naruto had taijutsu down. The sloppy, slow movements he was using right now belonged more in a drunken brawl than in a duel between shinobi – not that Sakura'd ever seen anyone drunk before, or brawling. But she could guess.

"What the hell is Naruto doing?" Ino hissed.

"What?" Tenten blinked and then, after a moment of observation, frowned. "That's not Naruto's taijutsu."

"Nope," Sakura agreed. "I have no idea what he's doing."

And she really couldn't reason Naruto's obvious negligence. Especially when not even a moment later Neji began the famed Hyuuga 64 Palm sequence and Naruto didn't even try to avoid it. Neji's arms and palms delivered precise strikes to main pressure points all over Naruto's body, with increasing frequency and strength. At the end of the very last formation, Naruto crumpled to the ground and Neji stood above him – not even panting, just wearing the same condescending expression as always.

"And… that was anti-climatic," Tenten said flatly. "Told you he'll lose."

"Man, I thought Naruto had it," Ino made a face.

"Pfft," Sakura rolled her eyes, "don't blink, you'll miss it."

Her two friends seemed to briefly forget Naruto had a not so little badly kept secret sleeping hidden in his body. Bound and sealed, but very much alive and most likely quite aware of its surrounding if it wasn't fully coherent. Naruto's natural chakra was massive enough on its own, but practically from birth it has been cocooned by a much large reserve, almost endless in its depths. The Kyubi's chakra will not be subdued by a low-rank technique every Hyuuga, even the most untalented, could preform.

'Ye of little faith!' Inner Sakura mocked, as over on the sand, Naruto gave a twitch.

"Maa," Naruto sat back up smoothly and then climbed to his feet, wiggling his limbs and flexing his neck, as if he were trying to stretch the muscles. "That all you've got, jackass?"

"This isn't possible," Neji said flatly. "No one can move after receiving all one hundred and eighteen strikes."

"Yeah, well, I'm not just anyone," Naruto snorted and moved his hands into the familiar sign of his favourite Kage Bunshin. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm gonna be Hokage, got it? But first I'm beating you up, dattebayo!"

They came from virtually everywhere. Erupted from the ground, slid off the walls and popped into existence around Naruto himself, without any further warning. A mass of clones, at the very least fifty of them, yelled different battle cries and charged at the bewildered Neji in perfect sync, from every direction.

Sakura consciously decided to savor the look of horror on Neji's face for the rest of her life, and if Tenten's loud snort was anything to go by – her brunette friend would do the same.

The clones closed in and for a moment it looked like Neji was buried alive by the wiggling orange mass. Then, quite suddenly, the clones were blown away by rapidly spinning blue chakra, creating a virtual whirlpool around Neji – who was the source of it. He was spinning and pushing chakra out of his body in a move neither of the genin had ever seen before, but proved quite effective against the barrage of hostiles. As the last clone popped out of existence, Neji slowed down and came to a stop, eyeing the vacated arena dully.

"How useless," He said monotonously.

"Uh-huh," Naruto agreed, from his spot right behind the older boy and promptly wacked him on the head with his sealing scroll in a ragingly unorthodox move. It was quite effective though – Neji crashed against the opposite wall and slid down to the ground, spitting blood out of his mouth and rubbing at his injured head. Naruto had smacked Neji's hitai-ate clear off his head, and Neji's touch further dislodged the bandaged wrapped around his forehead – revealing strange markings on his fair skin.

"Lowlife scum," Neji spat angrily.

"That is a seal," Naruto said, at the exact same time, his tone shocked. "A supressing seal. Why the hell is there supressing seal on your face, dattebayo?!"

'A what the fuck kind of seal?' Inner Sakura asked, stunned beyond words.

Sakura knew what a supressing seal was. There were different types of it, different levels of power and degrees of control, but all of them did one thing – they supressed something. Ruthlessly, without an escape route. Often times, they did it painfully. They were used to subdue dangerous enemies, like S-ranked nuke-nin or, well, the thing inside Naruto. No supressing seals should be branded onto the forehead of a fifteen year old Konoha shinobi.

"This?" Neji asked, his tone blank. "This is the Caged Bird seal of the Hyuuga branch family."

"The branch family?" Naruto spluttered, completely scandalized. "All the Hyuuga's have them?!"

"No," Neji said sharply. "Only us, branch family members. The main family is above such things. They are free people, we are bound slaves."

"Tenten," Ino said, a little shakily, "what the fuck?"

"I – I've never seen this before," Tenten's eyes were round with surprise. "I thought he had some sort of scar or birthmark, I didn't know. Oh, Neji."

"This is my destiny," Neji said coldly. "To live and die for the main house, like all branch family members. This seal is all I am. My fate has already been decided, and so was yours, Uzumaki Naruto. You can't defeat me with your weak skills."

"You talk big for someone who stinks of fear."

'Oh no he didn't,' Inner Sakura cackled, like a lunatic. 'Go Naruto! Rip him a new one!'

'Might not be a good idea, all things considered,' Sakura fretted.

'It's the best idea!'

The tips of Neji's ears reddened in fury, Sakura could see it all the way from her spot, and Naruto took it as his cue to carry on.

"You're a coward," Naruto said flatly. "You hate your lot in life, but instead of fighting against it you take it laying down, like a bitch."

'Hey, we taught him that phrase!" Inner Sakura said excitedly.

'In retrospect, we shouldn't have.'

"You whine, and you mope about like a total loser, bemoaning your predestined fate or whatever, and you don't do anything to change it," Naruto huffed, "not because it's set in stone, nothing's set in stone. I was last in my graduating class, but I ain't the weak link anymore! I got a grip and improved. When I don't like something I change it, dattebayo! I never back down! I never give up! That's my ninja way. That's why I'll always defeat you."

"Worthless –"

"I'm worth hundreds of you!" Naruto cut Neji off stubbornly. "Hinata is worth hundreds of you, too! Because she doesn't give up, either! When her old man kicked her out she didn't give up, she just trained harder!"

"Shut up!"

"When everybody mocked her, Hinata carried on with her head held high, because she knows she can do it!"

"I said, shut up!"

"Hinata believes in herself, and I believe in her, too! She's brave and amazing, and you're just a coward!"

"Shut your mouth!" Neji screamed and lunged forward, gathering so much chakra in his palms they gained a visible blue glow. "Forbidden Hyuuga art: Kyusho!"

'Did he just say Death Touch?!' Inner Sakura shrieked.

Sakura made to lunge over the railing, to put herself in front of Naruto and screw the consequences, but by the time she hoisted her foot up Neji had already made contact. He hit Naruto straight in the stomach, where under the layers of his clothes Sakura knew the seal of the Nine Tailed Demon Fox was hidden. And quite suddenly she realised the Byakugan could see chakra, so even if Neji didn't know what the hell he'd just poked, he was definitely aware of the fact it was dangerous. And he was willing to risk it, to win against Naruto.

To kill him.

"I'll rip you apart!" Sakura screeched, infuriated, and the only things keeping her in place were a pair of strong arms planted firmly on her shoulders. She looked up, determined to yell at the offender, and met eyes with a scowling Jiraiya.

"Do not," He warned. "Naruto will be alright."

"He stabbed him in the stomach!"

"He tried to," Jiraiya snorted. "Boy's got guts, but not the strength. Watch."

Sakura turned around and exhaled, nearly melting to her knees in relief, when all Neji achieved was to cause Naruto to look down in confusion at the spot where Neji's hand touched his stomach. Naruto's expression flickered from confused to startled, confused again and then so mischievous Sakura felt a trickle of dread down her spine. Naruto's grin was positively fox-like, and that was never a good thing.

"Alright, I'll trust ya," Naruto said loudly, grabbed hold of Neji's arm and gathered his own chakra in his hands – a bright and angry orange. "No hard feeling, eh, Neji? See ya!"

Naruto's chakra exploded. It literally exploded, with a loud boom and a whiplash of wind out of nowhere. When the dust and sand cleared several minutes later, Naruto was just fine. Neji, however, was face down on the floor on the far side of the arena, unconscious and bleeding from his ears.

"Victor, Uzumaki Naruto!" the proctor announced.

"Hell yeah!" Sakura whooped.

"The next contestants, please enter the arena! Haruno Sakura versus Yakushi Kabuto, both of Konoha!"

'Aw, shit.'

"Sakura," Jiraiya clapped her on the back just as Skaura made to move and she gave him a curious look. "Chin up. That Kabuto kid –"

"I know, JIraiya-sama," Sakura said seriously.

Kabuto had given her the creeps back in the first stage of the exam. She won't be letting her guard down, not even for a moment. Especially not if Jiraiya was worried about him, too. Pervert or not, the man was a legendary Sanin.

"Good girl," Jiraiya nodded. "Give him hell, eh?"

"Count on it!" Sakura agreed and marched towards the arena, fist bumping the victorious Naruto as she went.

It was time to show them what she had.