Naruto awoke in the morning sleeping in Sasuke's bed to the sound of Sakura's voice in his head. "Naruto," she was saying excitedly.

"What is it Sakura?" he asked sleepily.

"I confessed," she practically squealed. "I confessed and she said that she loves me to!"

"That's great," Naruto smiled.

"You're awake?" asked Sasuke from the door.

"Yea," yawned Naruto. "Sakura was just telling me that she and Ino got together.

"Oh yea," said Sasuke, "she told me to. She told me about two hours ago."

"What time is it?" asked Naruto.

"I was just coming to get you up because we have to leave for the 3rd test in about an hour."

"Oh," said Naruto. "I guess I should probably go home and get dressed then."

"No need," said Sasuke as he pointed to the folded clothes on the desk across from the bed. "I got you a change of clothes last night before I went to bed."

"You didn't have to do that," said Naruto. "I would have been fine going back."

"I know you would have," said Sasuke, "but I felt like doing it for you. I also made some breakfast."

"Mm," mumbled Naruto, "Thank you."

"I'll leave you alone so that you can get changed," said Sasuke before he left. "I'll be in the dining room if you need anything."

"Alright," said Naruto as he finally pulled the warm comforters off himself to reveal the pajamas that he was wearing. He blushed when he realized that Sasuke had changed his clothes. He didn't know why the thought made him blush since they had both seen the other with nothing but underwear on, but it still made him blush. He shook the thought from his head and quickly changed into his normal fighting outfit.

He quietly walked downstairs and into the large dining room to find Sasuke sitting at the table with two plates of scrambled eggs with toast and a couple of jars of different flavors of jelly. "Good morning," said Naruto when he sat down across from Sasuke.

"Awake now?" asked Sasuke.

"Yep," said Naruto. "Are we going to stop and pick up Sakura on the way over there?"

"No," said Sasuke, "I already told her that we would meet her there. I figured she would want to walk with her girlfriend."

"I'm happy for her," said Naruto. "That she finally gets to be with the person she loves."

"You said that last time they got together," laughed Sasuke.

"It's just as true now as it was then," said Naruto. "There is no greater happiness than the happiness gained from being with one's true love."

Sasuke smiled. He knew that was true first hand since he was already almost always with his true love. Sometimes he wondered if he could be happier if he confessed to Naruto and Naruto loved him back, but then that thought would always be replaced by the thought that if Naruto denied his love then he would lose all traces of his happiness and he would never allow that to happen. "We should go," he said in order to get his mind off of those grim thoughts.

"Oh yea," said Naruto as he looked over ot the clock on the oven. "I didn't even realize that it was so late." The two of them stood and placed their dishes in the sink before quickly exiting the house and heading towards the large arena that the third piece of the exam would take place at.

Naruto and Sasuke arrived only to realize that they were the last ones there. Everyone else had already arrived and were standing and waiting for the matches to begin. The two of them moved to stand in line with Naruto next to Gaara and Sasuke on the other side of Naruto.

"Good everyone's here," said the propter. "Now stand tall and present yourselves to the audience."

Naruto looked around at the audience and frowned. He hadn't remembered all these people being here before and the vast majority of them would make it hard for the other ninjas to protect them. He didn't know what happened last time at this part of the exam because he had been chasing after Sasuke, but he hoped that no one would get hurt.

Suddenly Naruto heard growling from his right side. He looked over to find Gaara looking up at where the kage's stood. Following Gaara's line of sight he saw the Kazekage taking his seat. He grabbed Gaara's hand in a comforting manner making Gaara look at him confusedly and smiled kindly. He only wanted to calm Gaara down. He didn't want Gaara to attack the Kazekage since that was actually Orochimaru and the real Kazekage was truly dead.

He released Gaara's hand as the Hokage announced the start of the test. "Alright everyone," said the propter. "Same rules as last time. Just try not to kill eachother this time." Then he turned to the audience and yelled at the top of his lungs, "The first match will be between Naruto Uzumaki and Neji Hyuuga. The rest of the students will move upstairs so that they will not be in the way. The others retreated quickly to the top.

Sasuke smirked when he got far enough up that he could see some of the faces of the men in the audience. His bet was that they had all betted on Neji winning. They would definately recieve a shock when his Naruto won. He wasn't allowed to bet during this competion since he was a part of it, but if he could he would've betted on Naruto winning the whole thing.

Naruto stood quietly across from Neji waiting for the propter to tell them to begin. When the propter did he still stood silently watching Neji watchh him. He could tell that Neji was trying to read him and his abilities. He smiled. Not even Neji's advanced Hyuuga Kekei Genkai could read everything about him.

Neji crept forward slightly. He was waiting for Naruto to move, but the boy wouldn't even move back as he crept forward. Perhaps Naruto didn't know of his most powerful technique. "Good," he thought to himself, "I can win this battle quickly without having to deal with his speed. Not that it would have mattered. Not even speed can beat my technique."

"Well," Neji said aloud, "are you going to attack me or are you just going to stand their and let me beat you up. If that's so then you should just give up."

"I have no reason to come racing towards you. I know I'm going to win this battle in the end."

"You can't beat me," said Neji. "It's absurd that you would even think it to be possible. These eyes have shown me many things including the fact that people's limitations are set. Yours will never allow you the ability to defeat me let alone the ability to become Hokage. Only a fool wastes his time trying to be come something he can never be."

"Only a coward hides behind limitations so that he can never become something he should be," answered Naruto.

Neji growled. He did not like being called a coward just because he was trying to enlighten an idiot. "You think anyone can become Hokage. All's it takes is a bit of hard work. Open your eyes. Out of all the ninja in this world think of how many become Hokage."

"You're right. Not just anyone can become Hokage, but it's not because of strength isn't the deciding factor on who becomes Hokage. By my experience it's usually the fools who get the job because they can do what no one else can."

"Those who become Hokage are destined to be so. We all have our own destiny and we must follow it obediently. The only destiny we all share is death."

"If you want so badly to believe in destiny then perhaps you should realize that their are more things that we all have in common. We all live and love. We enjoy happiness and suffer sadness. Destiny contribute to each of these things that we all share and she can be both very kind and very cruel. Perhaps if you stopped seeing her for the horrible things that she may have done in your life you would become aware of all the good things that she has given you."

"You don't know anything!" growled Neji. "You don't know anything about my life and my clan. You don't know anything about our heritage of hatred. Let me enlighten you so that you know how life is. For generations the main household of our clan has practiced a secret jutsu known as the curse-mark jutsu. The curse mark is the symbol of a bird locked in its cage. Its the mark of those who are bound to a destiny they cannot escape." He reached up and took off his headband to show everyone the seal that he was forced to hold on his forehead. "I was four years old when the leaders of my clan branded my forehead with their curse-mark jutsu. On that same day a great celebration took place in the hidden leaf village. After many years of war a peace agreement had at last been reached with the land of lightning and they had sent the houd cloud ninja to sign the treaty and join in the celbration. Everyone was their to welcome our old enemies. Every gennin and jounin in the leaf village. Only one clan was absent. The Hyuuga clan, because this was the day on which the heir to the main household was to turn three. It was Lady Hinata's third birthday. Her father, Lord Hiashi Hyuuga sits up there. He and my father, Hizashi Hyuuga, are twin brothers. And yet he came into the world first so he is head fo the family. The first born. While my father, his twin brother is banished to a lesser branch of the family. It was then, on the day the heir to the household turned three, that the curse mark was put on me and I was made a bird in a cage by my own uncle. You see, this is more than a mark that we bare. It is also the instrument by which they keep us in our place. We live with the fear that they will use this curse mark to turn our brains to jelly any time they want. Fear. That is what we live with, and we live with it every day. Only in death are we free of it. This is how the power of the byakugan is kept sealed away. Only the Hyuuga possess this unique form of kekei genkai, and of course there are many who would steal it from us. That is why we exist. It is the purpose of the branch family to defend that secret and to serve the keepers of the secret, the main household, obediently and without question for eternity. That is our destiny, or was, until that dreadful night. They went to far. When they murdered my father. One night someone entered the main household and abducted Lady Hinata. Lord Hiyashi quickly caught and killed the man. And who was this intruder stealing through the shadows in the dead of night wearing a mask over his face? It was none other than the head cloud ninja of the land of lightning. The man who had just signed an alliance with us. It was obvious to everyone that he was after the secret of the Byakugan, but the land of lightnign professed shock at this willful murer of their ninja. They claimed that the hidden leaf village was in violation of the treaty and they demanded recompense. Things got worse and worse until it looked like war would break out anew. The leaf village wanted above all things to avoid a war so at last they made a deal: a life for a life. The land of lightning demanded the death of the person who had slain their ninja. If there was to be peace Lord Hiyashi must die. The leaf village excepted their terms, and so to avert a war a man was killed, but not Hiyashi. My father, his twin brother, was killed in his place. In order to protect the main household. Only in death was my father finally free of this evil curse mark. They were so much alike, twin brothers, but their destinies had been determined long ago when one was born a few seconds after the other. And this match is the same. Your destiny was decided when I was chosen as your opponent. It's your destiny to lose to me, and that's it." With that he replaced his headband so that it covered the seal once more.

"Your father was a great man," said Naruto. "He lived life to protect those he loved. To protect those in his family. To protect his son. To protect his neices. Even to protect his only beloved brother. He gave up his life happily so that he could see that his family lived no matter what. He was a great man and his life was never determined by destiny."

"Don't talk about my father as if you know him. You don't know anything about my father. You don't know what it's like to be branded by a mark that sets you apart. A mark that can never be wiped away."

"I wish that people would top telling me that I don't understand what it's like when the truth is that they are the ones that don't understand," Naruto shook his head.

"What?" asked Neji.

Naruto gathered chakra towards his stomach to show off the seal that had been placed on his stomach when he had just been born. No matter how hard he tried, even though the Kyuubi was no longer contained in the seal, he could never get rid of it. It was the one seal that he had never been able to destroy. He heard many gasps in the audience. "Do you know what this is?" he asked Neji.

"What is that?" asked Neji.

"It's a cage," answered Naruto.

"How dare you mock my words," growled Neji.

"I'm not mocking you," said Naruto. "I'm only telling the truth. I'm telling you that everything you've experienced I have experienced worse. You were given that seal that has branded you as a part of the branch family by your uncle when you were four. This seal was given to me by my father on the day I was born, and it has branded me as nothing more than a container to the creature known as the Kyuubi. You know who that is right?"

"That's the nine-tailed fox demon," gasped Neji.

"That's right. This seal has branded me as nothing more than a jinchuriki, a carrier of a demon, in the eyes of the world. That seal that you carry has branded you as part of the branch family in the eyes of the Hyuuga clan. So don't tell me that I don't understand what it's like to be branded by a mark that can never be taken. Don't tell me I don't know what's it like to be thought of as different or inferior just because I was given a seal that no one else has. Because the truth is that you are the one who doesn't know what it's like to feel this pain. Now the difference between us is that I learned that feeling sorry for myself and thinking that that's the way life is and I should just stick to some stupid destiny that was preordained for me the moment I was born and my father gave me this seal is cowardly. I learned that the only way to live life is to do as I please no matter what others might say about me. As soon as you learn how to do that, then maybe you will understand that you are not the only one who has felt the pain of being set apart. Perhaps when you have come to work your way out of this bought of self pity that you have forced yourself into you will understand that destiny controls no one she only helps them along in life." Naruto walked forward slightly. "If you still don't believe me. If you still think that destiny controls everything. If you still believe that the curse-mark that you have controls you then fight me now and we shall see who is the correct one. I shall prove you wrong."

Neji lowered himself. The idiot was going to lose now. He had done the one bad thing that anyone facing Neji could do. He had stepped into range for Neji eight trigram attack. He attacked Naruto until finally he got to the end of the 64th palm when he realized that he was unable to move. "What's going on?" he said as he tried to get his body to move.

"I dodged each of those attacks and instead hit your pressure points, which renders you motionless," Naruto smiled.

"I guess that means you won," said the propter.

"Not yet," said Naruto as he moved forward so that he was standing right in front of Neji. He placed his hand on Neji's forehead in the same way that he had seen Hiyashi do it in the memories that he had gathered of Neji gaining that seal. After a few moments of standing there he removed his hand and reached over to remove Neji's headband once more. The cloth fell away to reveal a flawless forehead without a trace of any sort of seal. There was more gasps in the audience when they saw this.

"What did you do?" asked Neji who did not know what was going on.

Naruto simply reached up to his own headband and removed it to reveal that the smae seal that had once been on Neji's forehead now rested on his own. "I've removed the seal that you said could never be removed. I've given you freedom that you said that you could not earn unless you died. I have proven you wrong just as I said I would. Now it is nothing but your choise wether you will stick to your duty and protect Hinata, your cousin, just as your father protected his brother. She needs you, but she will never tell you that. The truth is that the only way she will be able to rule her clan as she should would be with you by her side to help her." He turned to the propter as he placed his headband back on his forehead. "Now the match is over."

"Wait!" said Neji making both of them turn to him. "Why did you take on the seal? If you already have your own that you can't get rid of why did you take on mine?"

Naruto rubbed his stomach where the Kyuubi's seal was still showing fully. "This mark on my stomach is the only seal that I have ever encountered that I have not been able to destroy. I took on your seal because I know I can destroy and that is what I am doing now."

"Why?" asked Neji.

"Because you love Hinata, but you have forced yourself away from her because of something that she had no control over. Now you have nothing to come between you two and you can help her through trying times as well as she can help you through trying times. Because I believe that this seal should never be used on any human being and that if you and Hinata come to rule the Hyuuga clan together as I know you will you will rid this world of that seal. And most importantly because I hate to see my friends suffer."

"I'm done," said Neji. "I won't fight any more."

"Then the match goes to Naruto," said the propter loudly so that everyone in the audience could hear. There was no cheering. No one could speak through their shock of what had just occured within the arena. It was nothing but silence.

Naruto walked forward once more and hit Neji's pressure points so that he could release him from the paralyzing state. "Come on," he said as he held his hand out so that Neji could grab it.

"Thank you Naruto," he said. Naruto helped him up. "I think I'm going to go apologize to Lady Hinata."

"I'm sure she would love to hear it," Naruto smiled. "She's in the infirmary."

"What?" asked Neji. "Why?"

"Her wounds acted up while we were fighting. They took her to the infirmary so that they could try to heal them again. I'm sure she would love it if you would go to be by her side." Neji nodded before taking off in the direction of the infirmary while Naruto went to join his teammates up in the rafters.

I think this is the longest chapter I've written so far. I hope you guys liked it.