The border patrol for the day had brought up nothing, and Gai was off keeping the perimeter swept alone. It was a risk for sure, but Gai had insisted that he would do it to prove youthfulness!

That left the remaining genin and Kurenai to get the dirty business of the day over with. The spar.

It was all that had been occupying everyone's mind all day. Neji had been extensively planning his victory, and the other Genin were a mixture of worry and anticipation. Except Naruto, who had focused on the mission. He already had his plan.

There was a large enough clearing for the spar close to the camp, and Kurenai led Neji and Naruto into the centre of it.

"The rules are as follows. This is a strictly non-lethal spar. No killing techniques are to be allowed, and excessive violence will not be tolerated. I will call victory or by submission. Am I clear? Non. Lethal."

"Are those all the rules?"

"Yes. Now be-"

Naruto had already gone, running away from Neji at speed and into the cover of the foliage. Neji laughed and shook his head.

"Does he not know you're meant to start a few metres apart, not away from one another? Is he fated to be an idiot as well?"

Kurenai sighed. Was he really that sheltered? He wasn't stupid by any stretch, just seemed to have no idea of the unwritten rules. This was going to be played by her rules and not Naruto's. She didn't necessarily want to see him beaten, Neji was hardly her favourite person, but Naruto unsettled her.

"Naruto, get back out here. You're meant to start 6 paces apart, no weapons drawn unless both of you consent."

Naruto moved back out of the bushes and stood exactly 6 paces away from Neji. He pulled the bow off his back and aimed it at Neji's shoulder unwaveringly.

"I do not consent to weaponry starting drawn."

Naruto put the bow back onto his back, and took up a stance.

"Ready? Begin!"

Neji moved to one side, expecting the first crossbow shot. It didn't come. Naruto just followed his movement and shifted his stance accordingly.

"Not using your main weapon? Are you trying to make it easy? I won't even need my eyes for this."

He moved in, launching a spinning kick as he want. A palmed kunai was in Naruto's hands as he blocked, cutting a small wound into Neji's leg. The boy ignored the pain and came round with a quick jabbing combination.

Naruto caught one of them in the shoulder and went down into a roll, hand reaching for something. Neji moved to one side again, expecting the blowgun to be fired.

There was again no shot, and he went in straight once again. He knocked the kunai from Naruto's hand with the first strike before launching a blow into Naruto's stomach. He was faster and bigger than Naruto, and it was showing.

"You're so slow! You're barely as good as the idiot I beat in the exam finals before his stupid technique. You're fated to lose."

Naruto rose and drew his tanto. If he was going to take it easy, he'd take advantage.

He loped forwards, steps looking off balance and uncontrolled. Neji met him head on, trying to knock Naruto's blade arm. Naruto swept the pommel of the blade into Neji's shoulder, but took a kick to the stomach for his troubles. He rolled back as Neji came in straight.

"Kaiten!"

The thrown tanto bounced across the sand towards the spectators, and Tenten caught it by the handle as it went. It was a weapon and need to be saved. She gave the blade a quick appraisal before going back to the match. It wasn't as interesting as Matilda.

"Is that all you have?"

Naruto went for the bow and Neji was on him in seconds. With Naruto's arms unoccupied, every strike hit.

"Eight Trigrams: Sixty Four Palms."

Naruto felt every single one of the blows and fell backwards, sprawled in pain.

"Call the match Kurenai-sensei, he was fated to lose. He is defeated, no one can withstand such an attack."

"You're right."

Then the Naruto dissolved into smoke.

"What?"

Kurenai simply stared as she realised what jutsu it was. He knew how to make shadow clones. That was interesting. Tenten felt the weight of the tanto disappear from her hands as it too dissolved from existence in a puff of smoke. She felt slightly cheated.

She looked at Hinata and Kiba, both of whom looked as surprised as her.

"What kind of clone is that?"

Kiba grinned at Hinata's query.

"Whatever type it was, I want one of those."

Akamaru give a small whine from his head.

"You're still better than them though."

The dog made a contented noise.

Neji stood in the centre of the ring, looking left and right in annoyance.

"If you want to play hide and seek, you are a fool. I am destined to win such a game."

His Byakugan flared into life and he looked around the clearing to find his opponent. He could see the signatures of Kurenai and the other genin. But other than some wildlife buzz, there was nothing.

"What? Where are you?"

He lengthened his vision, sacrificing angle for distance. Still nothing. Where was he?

"I'm still here Neji."

He spun and his outstretched arm, glowing with chakra for the strike met nothing but air

He checked above and below, and all around once more.

Hinata watched as her cousin span, striking at air. Where was Naruto? She activated her own eyes and tried to look for him herself. There was nothing. He was gone. She looked at Kiba and Shino, both of whom shook their heads.

"I thought you could see everything Neji? Maybe Hinata can see me?"

He spun, and his kick again met nothing but air. He cried in triumph and slammed his hands together.

"Kai!"

The voice in his head stopped echoing. A genjutsu. That was his strategy? A weak genjutsu to make him hallucinate a voice?

"Is that weak genjutsu all you have? Let me hear your voice now?"

His vision suddenly swam and began to distort before his eyes. He pulsed his chakra again to remove the visual genjutsu.

"Still here Neji. You can't see me."

He did so again. The voice stopped.

Hinata looked around the clearing. Naruto had just called out from somewhere around the circle. Where was he though? His voice was distorted by the geometry of the clearing.

She looked at Shino who looked back at her.

"Don't look for him," he whispered, "I suspect this is all part of a strategy."

Tenten nodded. Whatever he was doing, he was getting Neji worried. This wasn't a normal spar, it was too tense and personal. This was a duel. It had been ten minutes and much of that had been Neji striking the air.

Neji stopped checking. If he could hide from his eyes, he had another choice.

He drew an explosive tag and attached it to a kunai before throwing it into the bushes ahead of him. It exploded, throwing burning shrubbery around along with dust. There was no trace of his target however.

Kurenai was going to step forwards when she heard a voice.

"Let him continue Kurenai-sensei, my apologies for using a genjutsu on you as well."

She quietly dispelled the illusionary voice. His strategy was risky. She should have stopped Neji from throwing the tags when she realised where his hiding place was likely to be. Neji wouldn't strike there.

Another few tags took out more of the landscape around Neji.

"Running out of places to hide?"

There was a thud close to Neji's feet.

"Kaiten!"

The dome of chakra scattered the smoke from whatever Naruto had thrown. Neji silently cursed himself for thinking the smoke bomb had been an explosive.

"Come out and fight properly! Lee is a better shinobi than you! Tenten is better! My weak cousin is better! You are nothing but a coward who hides in the dark. Even Kiba would be more of a challenge now."

"But in the dark, you can see can't you? How does it feel to be blind?"

His world turned into a world with a lot more shadows in it, and he pulsed his chakra repeatedly. Wherever he was, he was throwing genjutsu at him, and the less risks he took the better.

Kurenai suddenly realised his strategy. He was wearing Neji down with distractions. Neji was expending far more energy and chakra than Naruto, even if the latter had used a shadow clone earlier in the fight. Even more so, Neji was getting very twitchy.

Neji reactivated his eyes to try and find his foe once again. His vision was at a compromise distance, fair distance with only a slight loss of coverage at the back.

He rotated this way and that, covering his own blind spots as he did so. He awaited Naruto's next move. Could he not see that all his attacks were ineffective? Could he not know that defeat was inevitable? His opponent could only be so patient. He just had to wait for the mistake.

He saw a slightest of movement out of the corner of his eye, and deflected the blowgun dart away before moving towards the cover where he knew it had come from. He ripped the bushes apart and took a hit to the face from the pommel of the tanto as Naruto rose upwards out of the cover.

As he stumbled back, Naruto swept for Neji's legs, landing a kick on the cut leg. The wound reopened slightly and Neji acknowledged it with a grunt of pain.

Naruto moved in with the tanto but found it deflected by a chakra charged strike from Neji. Then he was knocked back as Neji rose. He tried to fall back, but Neji grabbed him and threw him back into the ring before following it up with a kick to the stomach.

"Sixty Four Palms!"

The downed Naruto took the full force of the attack and then poofed out of existence. Neji panted and let out a cry of frustration.

"Again? Fight me!"

Neji turned into a handful of dusty dirt being thrown directly into his eyes. He staggered, hands clapped over them. He struck out blind and met nothing. He tried to build up the spin and chakra for another Kaiten but didn't have enough left within himself to do so. Then he felt his legs being whipped out from under him and the press of cold steel to his neck.

"Yield."

"No."

Neji twisted downwards and tried to sweep Naruto's legs from under him. Naruto leapt over the expected attack and waited a couple of moments longer.

Neji turned to face him and took a spray of blackish mist to his eyes. He stumbled over, yelling in pain as he rubbed his eyes.

Naruto tripped him, kicked him right between the legs, twisted his arm behind his back and applied the blade to his neck once again.

"Yield."

"No."

As Kurenai hadn't ended the match, Naruto kicked him between the legs again, then whipped them out from under Neji, slamming him into the dirt again in the process.

"Yield."

Neji too frustrated, too angry, and in too much pain to retort. It didn't help that Naruto was making him eat dirt.

"Naruto you've won, release him!"

He relinquished his holds from Neji, and Tenten ran in quickly with some water. Neji snatched it when he felt it and washed his eyes copiously.

"Dirty cheat!"

"How did I cheat?"

"You hid. You used mist and a low blow. You attacked with nothing but harmless genjutsu and smoke bombs."

"And?"

"Those are not good techniques. They are weak!"

"Enough to defeat and kill you at least three times over."

Neji spat at his feet.

"Take them away and what do you have?"

"Your argument is silly. Take away five of my techniques, and let's take away five of yours. Your taijutsu style, your Byakugan, and what else do you have? Your use of weapons? Maybe an arm?"

Neji stared angrily at him before he backed down.

"I think I just disproved destiny as you have defined it."

Neji kept walking away, towards the camp.

"I will keep my word, but I do not like you. I do not like what you represent."

The other genin rushed over to Naruto as he left. Tenten shook him unexpectedly by the shoulders and he did his best to restrain any kind of action that involved running away and hiding.

"Ok, you are going to explain right now how you did that and every single technique you used. Now!"

He backed off a little, slightly in shock at having someone shout directly into his face. Shino shook his head.

"It would be illogical for him to do so. The only fact I want to know is how you were not spotted by his Byakugan. To suppress your chakra signal so far implies that you did not use your Byakugan or any high chakra techniques."

Shino's statement wasn't an accusation. It was a logical appraisal of Naruto's performance.

"That is the case."

"Then I am impressed. Your strategy was good. Congratulations."

"Thank you Shino-san."

Kurenai nodded at his judgement.

"Go back to camp, I wish to discuss something with Naruto."

"Hai."

The genin departed, leaving Kurenai alone with Naruto. She folded her arms across her chest and sighed, looking away a little.

"You really are a pain you know that?"

"I was unaware I had injured you."

"That's part of it. You take everything so...literally. You don't know a lot of the phrases that we all use in our lives, and you haven't seen so much human interaction. Heaven help you when you discover love. That is going to mess your perception of people up."

"I'll bear that in mind."

She smiled. It was the first time she had done so in his presence.

"Your victory was impressive, if unconventional. I would like to know about the genjutsu you put on me. Is it another one you created yourself?"

"Yes."

"You're lying. That jutsu looks remarkably similar to the techniques used by the Yamanaka clan. You spoke into my head without eye contact or anyone else hearing. You did the same to Neji; you even spoke to him afterwards because he was paranoid."

"Confusion is a weapon."

"Wise. But where did you really learn the technique?"

"It was part of my training."

"Where?"

"I am not allowed to say."

She scowled briefly. She wasn't going to interrogate him, not now.

"What other genjutsu did you use?"

"Just one to flood his vision with shadows. It was obvious to him, and he dismissed it. I merely used it to disguise other genjutsu and force him to waste chakra trying to dismiss ones that weren't there."

"Just like you forced him to waste more chakra and energy deflecting phantom attacks and attacking clones?"

"Yes."

"You got him to exhaust himself physically and mentally, and then beat him with some blows that aren't entirely honourable?"

"I sought to reduce the risk of getting close. As you saw with my clones, he outmatches me in hand to hand combat, even with my weapons."

"How did your clones survive that well? It was my understanding from seeing Kakashi use them that such clones tend not to survive powerful strikes."

"With training, you can force the clone to last as long as a normal body."

There was a slight tremor in his shoulders that she caught. She could read people well and he was nearly a blank. There was something there, and she could see it.

"There's a downside isn't there?"

"All the pain transfers with it."

That had all the signs of a kinjutsu written over it. Such a sacrificial techniques had a disadvantage in the long term, and would never work with multiple opponents.

"What? That's insane."

"It's a price I have paid before and will again."

"How much pain are you in currently."

"Phantom aching at every point he struck."

"But that's...128 points at least."

"Yes. 138 when you consider all the other strikes during the spar."

She stared at him as he barely showed the effects of the pain. What kind of resilience?

"Are you ok?"

"Yes."

"One final question. The mist. It won't do permanent harm will it?"

"No, it was a weak acetic acid solution with some colouring. The acid irritates the eyes enough for him to be distracted. The colouring makes the target believe it is something exotic and deadly. I think the active eye is much more sensitive to pain."

"Oh. You also gave him two low blows. That is discouraged amongst most circles."

"Any advantage must be seized."

That sounded like something he was quoting from a textbook.

"Well. I can't say he didn't deserve it, and I think I must apologise for my words towards you Naruto. You are unconventional, and your appearance tends to get my team injured. But you are a good shinobi, Hinata judges character well. Shino too, and I sense Kiba is grateful towards you. You disturb me because you are truly pragmatic to extents I find scary. I apologise for being so short with you."

"You're taller than me."

"I mean short tempered, quick to judge."

"Oh, I accept the apology. I apologise for any actions of mine that have offended you."

She extended her hand, and, with a moment's hesitation, Naruto took it briefly.

"Let's put the past behind us. Until you have a new mission, feel free to join my team on any mission it goes on. I'd preferred it if you told me beforehand when you did however. "

"I'll keep it in mind."

He made to walk away.

"Oh and Naruto?"

He turned to face her. She was smiling a little.

"Please don't shoot any of my team again?"

"I will endeavour not to."

She walked back to the camp, leaving Naruto to his thoughts. He began to move slowly, keeping an eye on his surroundings at all times like a good ninja. Did this make him and her entire team friends? Probably. Probably.

He watched the leaves dance through the clearing for a few seconds and imagined their paths before walking back to the camp by the trees.